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PERRY COUNTY 




A HISTORY 



BY 
THOMAS JAMES DE LA HUNT 



The W. K. Stewart Company 

Indianapolis 

1916 






Copyright 1916 

BY 

Thomas James de la Hunt 



1'- 



APR 26 1916 



IG1.A428715 



To A Native of Perry County 

To Whose Inspiration This Book Owes Its 

Existence 

MY MOTHER 

Isabelle Huckeby de la Hunt 

It Is Dedicated as a Loving Memorial 



"To make the past present, to bring the present near' 

— Macaulay 



FOREWORD 



As an author's privilege is conceded him the right 
to speak of difficulties met with, of obstacles overcome, 
in the preparation of his completed work. 

Yet is it not more agreeable to recall the pleasures 
encountered along the roadside, the cordial assistance 
so cheerfully given, the spirit of ready helpfulness 
which ever brightened the most toilsome research ? 

While individual acknowledgment of such favours 
cannot possibly be made, it is hoped that none among 
those whose aid has contributed toward the material 
of this volume will, on such score, deem its writer un- 
appreciative. 

So marked has been the kindness shown, so encour- 
aging the words of loyal confidence expressed, that the 
twelvemonth of its actual writing has taught its writer 
in many unexpected ways the genuine quality of Perry 
County friendship, which reaches across all boundary 
lines to lend a helping hand. 

It is believed that this same warmheartedness will 
make every allowance due for unavoidable shortcomings 
or omissions in the story now offered each one who 
may care to read. 

Virginia Place 

December, Nineteen Hundred and Fifteen 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

Exploration and Organization 1 

CHAPTER II 
Pioneer Settlers of Each Township 8 

CHAPTER III 
First Circuit Court and Officers at Troy 28 

CHAPTER IV 
Removal of County Seat to Rome 35 

CHAPTER V 
Revolutionary Veterans and Soldiers of 1812 42 

CHAPTER VI 
Brick Court House and Early Residents at Rome. 53 

CHAPTER VII 
Lafayette's Steamboat Wreck at Rock Island 61 

CHAPTER VIII 
Lincoln Family in Perry County 68 

CHAPTER IX 
Early Residents, Schools and Churches — Derby __ 74 



X CONTENTS 

CHAPTER X 

Mining Developments at Coal Haven and Can- * 
nelton 85 

CHAPTER XI 
Original School Laws and System 94 

CHAPTER XII 
Founding of Leopold by Father Bessonies 104 

CHAPTER XIII 
Rono and Northeastern Portion of County 113 

CHAPTER XIV 
Lawyers, Judges and First Newspapers 121 

CHAPTER XV 
Manufacturing Enterprises at Cannelton 130 

CHAPTER XVI 

Churches and Schools at Cannelton 145 

CHAPTER XVII 
Second Relocation of County Seat 156 

CHAPTER XVIII 
County Banks, Newspaper Changes, Etc 165 

CHAPTER XIX 
River Traffic and Famous Steamboats 173 



CONTENTS xi 

CHAPTER XX 
Swiss Colonization Society at Tell City 184 

CHAPTER XXI 
Pioneer Men and Industries at Tell City 193 

CHAPTER XXII 
Immediately Before the War Between the States. 203 

CHAPTER XXIII 
Beginning of Hostilities 212 

CHAPTER XXIV 
Benevolent and Patriotic Work of Women 221 

CHAPTER XXV 
Progress of War 226 

CHAPTER XXVI 
Hines' Invasion — Morgan's Raid 237 

CHAPTER XXVII 

Bombardment of Hawesville 245 

CHAPTER XXVIII 
Close of War 250 

CHAPTER XXIX 
Industrial Development 258 



xii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XXX 
Adyeville, Branch ville, Bristow, Siberia 268 

CHAPTER XXXI 
Rome Academy 276 

CHAPTER XXXII 
First Teachers* Institute 285 

CHAPTER XXXIII 
First County Fairs 294 

CHAPTER XXXIV 
From Plank Road to Railway 303 

CHAPTER XXXV 
Newspapers and Fraternal Orders 317 

CHAPTER XXXVI 
New Court House— First High School 330 

CHAPTER XXXVII 
Present Century Events 341 

CHAPTER XXXVIII 
Indiana Centennial 352 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 



CHAPTER I 

EXPLORATION AND ORGANIZATION. 

Perry County, Indiana, is one of the first memorials 
to the fame of the gallant American commodore, Oli- 
ver Hazard Perry, of Rhode Island, whose brilliant 
naval victory over the British fleet on Lake Erie, Sep- 
tember 10, 1813, was recognized and commemorated 
less than one year later by the Legislature of Indiana 
Territory through the bestowal of his name upon one 
of two new counties (Posey being the other) organ- 
ized out of Warrick and a part of Gibson, by an act 
approved September 7, 1814. 

Since, however, all history must have its beginnings 
with the earliest inhabitants of any country or local- 
ity, let it not be forgotten that within the metes and 
bounds as thus established, some material evidence 
then existed to give testimony that Perry County was 
once in possession of the Mound Builders, that singu- 
lar race of nomads, or semi-nomads, who left traces 
of their occupancy throughout the entire Mississippi 
Valley. These Mound Builders being placed by reliable 
historians as contemporaneous with the early Assyri- 
ans, Babylonians and Egyptians, a speculative dis- 
cussion of their origin, sojourn and ultimate disap- 
pearance would far outreach the plan of this volume, 
nothing being perhaps more completely shrouded in 
oblivion than this strange race. Their works form 
their monuments, and tradition is even more silent 
than their tombs. 



2 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

They are called Mound Builders from their custom 
of building vast accumulations of earth and stone in 
a variety of forms which indicate that some colossal 
force with intelligent direction was at work in the far- 
gone and forgotten centuries. Investigators have 
classified these earthworks by their apparently prob* 
able diverse uses — military, sacerdotal, ceremonial, 
memorial, sacrificial or sepulchral, and under the last 
two heads would come certain remains described 
by an elder generation as once existing in Perry 
County. Five mounds formerly stood in the north- 
eastern part of the county, on the old Stephen 
Deen farm in Union Township, but all were opened 
long ago by unskilled relic-hunters, and in the lapse 
of subsequent years have become indistinguishable 
through washing, plowing and cutting down. 

Some of these mounds are said to have contained 
only deep beds of charcoal resting upon rude altars; 
one, nothing beyond concentric layers of superimposed 
soil ; while in another were a few implements of stone 
or bone, besides some crumbling human bones, mingled 
with ashes and charcoal. Had these human remains 
been immediately submitted to expert anatomical 
analysis, it might have been satisfactorily established 
whether they were the skeletons of Mound Builders or 
of Indians, who had to some extent emulated their pre- 
decessors in customs of burial, although they knew 
nothing of them, even by tribal tradition. 

If the Mound Builders were the lineal ancestors of 
the Indians, the ancestry was so remote that not only 
was all relationship lost, but their respective osseous 
structure was distinctively modified in the lapse of 
immeasurable time. Ethnologists have found such 
structural similarity to the Aryan families of Central 
Asia that prevalent opinion now holds the Mound 
Builders to have descended from Asiatics who crossed 
to the continent of another hemisphere by way of Ber- 
ing's Straits and overspread all America. This hypo- 
thesis gives base to the further argument of some 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 3 

authorities identifying them with "The Lost Ten Tribes 
of Israel," but practical conditions alone can be dealt 
with herein, however fascinating the theories neces- 
sarily excluded. 

Undoubtedly the first white explorers of Indiana 
were the French voyageurs — missionaries or traders — 
who chanted pious hymns or caroled love-ballads while 
paddling their shallow canoes along the mid-western 
streams; so, by the establishment from time to time 
during the Seventeenth Century, of widely scattered 
'posts,' of which Vincennes was one, all the vast region 
lying between the Alleghenies and the Rocky Moun- 
tains came under the dominion of France ; although it 
now seems more a dream than a historic fact that per- 
mission to traverse the bounds of Indiana once had to 
be humbly solicited in Paris, before that supreme 
voluptuary, Louis Fourteenth, whose lifelong philos- 
ophy was epitomized in his phrase, "L 'Etat, c'est Moi," 
('I am the State,') or that the right of commerce with 
naked redskins along the Wabash ever lay in the hand 
which signed the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 
Louis Fifteenth, his successor. 

British supremacy along the Atlantic coast was un- 
questioned, and England rested content with vaguely 
claiming the "South Sea" (Pacific Ocean) as the west- 
ern boundary of Virginia, the Carolinas, Massachu- 
setts and her other colonies. But when her traders 
began to push beyond the mountains they found them- 
selves everywhere forestalled by the French; so, at 
length, toward the meridian of the Eighteenth Century, 
the English government roused to the situation. 

Thus was inaugurated the struggle known in Ameri- 
can history as The French and Indian War, called in 
Europe The Seven Years War, of which Thackeray 
wrote: "It was strange that in a savage forest of 
Pennsylvania a young Virginian officer should fire a 
shot and waken up a v/ar which was to last for sixty 
years, which was to cover his own country and pass 
into Europe, to cost France her American colonies, to 



4 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

sever ours from us and create the great Western 
republic, to rage over the Old World when extinguished 
in the New, and of all the myriads engaged in the vast 
contest to leave the prize of the greatest fame with 
him who struck the first blow." 

With masterly fidelity and vivid picturesqueness is 
the stupendous story narrated in Francis Parkman's 
monumental series of volumes: "France and England 
in North America," also touched in thrilling verse by 
the magic pen of Oliver Wendell Holmes : 

"Long raged the conflict, on the crimson sod 
Native and alien joined their hosts in vain; 
The Lilies withered where The Lion trod. 
Till Peace lay panting on the ravaged plain." 

Under the Treaty of Paris, February 10, 1763, 
France gave up all the territory east of the Mississippi 
River, except the town of New Orleans, a political and 
geographical status which remained until the Revolu- 
tionary War, when the Surrender of Cornwallis at 
Yorktown, October 19, 1781, necessitated a new map 
of the American continent. 

Richmond on the James then became the seat of 
government, after eighteen years of its administration 
from London, since the wide region now styled the 
Middle West was already part of Virginia. The emin- 
ent historian, John Esten Cooke, has said : "Her right 
to it rested upon as firm a basis as the right of any 
other commonwealth to its own domain, and if there 
was any question to the Virginia title by charter, she 
could assert her right by conquest. The region had 
been wrested from the British by a Virginian com- 
manding Virginia troops: the people had taken the 
oath of allegiance to 'The Commonwealth of Virginia,' 
and her title to the entire territory was indisputable." 

Richest and most powerful among the Colonies, Vir- 
ginia v/as the foremost advocate for equalitv and 
union, to secure whicii she made a willing saciiiice by 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 5 

yielding to the Federal government the noble princi- 
pality won for her, February 25, 1778, at Vincennes, 
by General George Rogers Clark, the hero of Foert 
Sackville. As "The Territory Northwest of the 
Ohio," it was first organized July 13, 1787, and on 
July 4, 1800. a new division was created by Congress 
under the name "Indiana," an appellation coined from 
the Indians who were its inhabitants. 

Notv/ithstanding English control, the heart and con- 
fidence of the red men had always remained with the 
French, and the haughty, domineering policy of the 
British^government retarded commerce by causing the 
Indians to despise the English. Beyond a doubt, the 
foundation of Indian hostility to later pioneers 
throughout the West was laid in their early antipathy 
to the Anglo-Saxon people, which when once conceived 
was skilfully nourished by the proud, unrelenting na- 
tives under such crafty leaders as Pontiac, Tecumseh, 
Black Hawk and others, down to Sitting Bull and 
Geronimo. 

Most of Indiana's area was originally the hunting 
and camping ground of three different though asso- 
ciated tribes, the Miami, the Wea, (or Ouiatenon) and 
the Piankeshaw, the last-named occupying nearly all 
the lov/er Wabash Valley and ranging along the Ohio 
River also, their extensive possessions making them 
a powerful factor in the celebrated Miami Confederacy. 
The boundaries v/hich these people claimed were arro- 
gantly defined at the Treaty of Greenville, August 3, 
1795, by Chief Little Turtle in the words : "It is well 
known to all the brothers present that my forefather 
kindled the first fire at Detroit, from thence he extended 
his lines to the headwaters of the Scioto ; from thence 
down the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash ; and from 
thence to Chicago on Lake Michigan." 

But as the early tide of immigration poured its flood 
of European settlers along the Atlantic coast, civiliza- 
ttion took up its westward march across the Apalah- 
chians. Disdainfully rejecting the enlightment thus 



6 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

brought, the sullen, treacherous savage retired con- 
tinually farther into the gloom and solitude of his 
virgin forests. In time, therefore, several different 
tribes came to dwell in the same territory, the newer 
arrivals being called 'permitted,' so throughout the 
whole of early Indiana these wandering strangers were 
found. Among them may be named Delawares, Pot- 
tawatomies, Shawnees, Kickapoos, Wyandottes and 
Senecas. 

The duration or scope of such varied tenure is prac- 
tically indeterminable, but the period of its close is 
fixed through the Treaty of Fort Wayne, June 7, 1803, 
and the Treaty of Vincennes, August 18 and 27, 1804, 
with all the leading tribes who could by any remote 
possibility claim the lands. 

All the soil of Perry County became under these 
agreements the property of the United States govern- 
ment, subject to entry for settlement, and within twelve 
months afterward a sectional survey was made. The 
extreme northern portion was surveyed by Levi Barber 
in September, 1804; Range 3, West, by Elias Rector, 
in June, 1805, Range 2, West, by Stephen Benton, dur- 
ing the same month ; and Range 1, West, by Ebenezer 
Buckingham, in August, 1805. 

Shortly following these surveys the Indians migrated 
to trans-Mississippi grants, except a few straggling 
remnants of tribes, isolated families who haunted the 
woodland countryside, occasionally harassing the earl- 
iest pioneers. When the newly surveyed sections were 
thrown upon the market, settlers appeared, though an 
interval of some two or three years went by before the 
first entries of lands taken up in Perry County were 
officially recorded at Vincennes, as the newcomers were 
reluctant to undertake at once a further hazardous 
journey across the trackless wilderness in order to file 
their papers in the Territorial Land Office, a frame 
building yet (1915) standing. 

Many of these pioneers had come — as the Lincoln 
family did, earlier, into Kentucky — by 'broad-horn' flat- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 7 

boats, or by keelboats from the Old Dominion, and to 
this early influx of Virginians was largely due that 
lingering affiliation with Southern political principles 
which asserted itself sixty years afterward. Along 
that marvellous "Course of Empire," the Ohio River, 
they took their westward way, travelling the only com- 
mercial thoroughfare then available, a majestic stream 
with a history of imperishable significance. 

Although two Moravian missionaries, Heckewelder 
and Zeisberger, toward the close of the Eighteenth 
Century, declared the name to be a contracttion of 
'Ohiopeekhanna,' meaning 'the white-foaming river,' 
the strongest consensus of opinion has always favoured 
a derivation from the Wyandotte '0-he-yan-de-wa,' 
abbreviated on early French maps as *Oyo,' and for the 
French translated by the Indians as meaning La Belle 
Riviere, the Beautiful River. 

Such is the name yet handed down to the descendants 
of those who traversed its long shining aisle through 
a fair green world, beneath the sun and stars of a 
century and a half ago. Reaching high into the foot- 
hills of the Alleghenies and the Cumberlands, beckon- 
ing to the colonists of Virginia and the Carolinas ; with 
outspread arms stretching as far as the sources of the 
Allegheny at the north and those of the Tennessee to 
the south ; the Beautiful River called through the for- 
est stillness with musical voice, then heard by the 
pioneers of Perry County and today still faintly echo- 
ing its appeal of home in the hearts of all their exiled 
sons and daughters. 



CHAPTER II. 

PIONEER SETTLERS OF EACH TOWNSHIP. 

Just as the vast domain first organized under the 
title "Territory Northwest of the Ohio River," and 
later Indiana Territory, was reduced by successive 
divisions to the final limits of the commonwealth as it 
stands today, a similar process of elimination was fol- 
lowed in practically all the earliest counties of Indiana, 
so the extensive and unwieldy area of Perry County as 
created in the original enactment was gradually dimin- 
ished by the respective organization of Dubois County, 
December 20, 1817, Spencer County, January 10, 1818, 
and Crawford County, January 29, 1818. Such, there- 
fore, shall be the geographical boundary circumscrib- 
ing the region whose historic events it is the purpose 
of this chronicle to consider. 

Section 5 of the Act approved September 14, 1814, 
reads: "And be it fm'ther enacted, That William 
Barker, Jesse Emmerson and James Stewart, of Gib- 
son County, Joseph Paddox and Ignatius Abell, of 
Harrison County, be and are hereby appointed Com- 
missioners to fix the seat of justice in Perry County, 
who shall meet at James McDaniel's in said Perry 
County on the third Monday of November next and 
proceed to fix the seat of justice for the said county of 
Perry agreeably to the provisions of an act entitled 'An 
act for fixing the seat of justice in all new counties 
hereafter to be laid off,* " These commissioners, there- 
fore, or a majority of them, met at the appointed time 
and place, pursuant to the Act quoted, to begin their 
labours. 

The Greek classics describe Neptune, God of the 
Waters, as the builder of ancient Troy, a poetic para- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 9 

phrase interpreted as meaning that it was a maritime 
city whose site was determined upon as convenient 
abode for sea-faring men. Similar considerations, be- 
yond doubt, had strong influence with the earliest pio- 
neers who came down the Ohio River, and among these 
voyagers James McDaniel, Joseph Wright, John Bowie 
and perhaps some few others had found a haven just 
above the mouth of a stream which later became known 
as Anderson River. Here they located, with their 
families, negro slaves and household goods brought 
from Virginia, and while the exact date, claimed by 
some of their descendants as 1793, is undoubtedly too 
early, and now quite impossible to verify, it is certain 
that they entered land in Perry (then Knox) County 
during the first few years of the Nineteenth Century. 

Thus sprang into existence a tiny hamlet, one of the 
first-born below the falls of the Ohio, sheltered under 
the wing of a protecting hill, a part of the lofty sand- 
stone elevation in Southern Indiana which physical 
geographers classify as the extreme foothills of the 
Cumberland Range. Even as Mount Ida (Tennyson's 
"many-fountained Ida") overlooked the walls of storied 
Ilium, this majestic ridge dominated the landscape and 
watched the feeble beginnings of Hoosier Troy. It is 
unknown to whom the name owes its being, or just 
when it came into use, since it does not appear in the 
act quoted, and its sponsorship has never been claimed. 

With constantly increasing frequency south-bound 
vessels passed by, among them the brig St. Clair, the 
first ocean-rigged craft in the West; the sea-going 
schooner Amity and the ship Pittsburg built at Pitts- 
burg in 1801, which made the long river voyage to 
New Orleans, thence to Philadelphia and across the 
Atlantic to Bordeaux. Of these the Tarascon Brothers, 
whose name still lives on western waters, were the 
owners and builders. 

Others constructed later at Marietta, Ohio, were the 
Muskingum, Indiana, Eliza Greene and Marietta, also 
the Dorcas-and-Sally, built at Wheeling, ra^'iing in 



10 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

tonnage from 70 to 250. But after some few successes 
and numerous failures it was realized that river con- 
ditions were unfavourable for the operation of such 
deep-bellied ships, so shallower bottomed boats super- 
seded them as better able to negotiate an upstream 
voyage against floods, rapids and snags. 

As all floating craft formed the habit of stopping at 
McDaniel's the spot became gradually recognized as a 
convenient landing place and its selection as a meeting 
point for the commissioners was a natural choice. The 
same arguments, added to the persuasiveness of ma- 
terial donations, no doubt carried weight in affecting 
the commissioners' decision, and after viewing several 
places along the river they finally fixed upon a tract of 
one hundred and twenty acres offered as a gift by 
James McDaniel, Sr., and James McDaniel, Jr. Solo- 
mon Lamb, who had come from New York state to 
these parts, also gave ten acres of land, and his brother, 
Israel Lamb, a cash donation, while among the other 
citizens of the vicinity sufficient money was subscribed 
for erection of the necessary court house and jail. 

The county was next divided into the townships of 
Troy, Tobin, Anderson, Clark, Oil and Hurricane. 
This last-named appears for a time as Lamar Town- 
ship, extending on the west of Anderson River from 
the Ohio as far north as Dubois County. As a division 
of Perry County, however, its existence was brief, only 
until the organization of Spencer County, (1818) when 
it became the present townships of Hammond, Huff, 
Carter and, lastly, Harrison in that county. Subse- 
quent township changes in Perry County were the crea- 
tion of Union, Smith, Athens and Deer Creek, all but 
the first having been re-absorbed into the original dis- 
tricts, while Leopold, the latest civil division set apart, 
was not created until 1847, ten years after Deer Creek 
had been formed. 

With no intention of awarding any precedence in 
antiquity to one portion of the county over any other, 
in here enumerating some few of the earliest settlers in 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 11 

each township, the townships will be taken just as 
previously listed, leaving claims of priority for others 
to determine. 

Troy Township's name was derived from the same 
source as that of the village itself, and a very early 
entry at the Vincennes Land Office appears as that of 
Elias Rector, in 1809, taking up Section 31, Fractional 
Sections 32 and 5, all in Township 6, South; Range 3, 
West, This lay about midway between Troy and the 
present city of Cannelton and became the later site 
of Tell City. 

Elias Rector was the third of nine sons born in Fau- 
quier County, Virginia, to Frederick Rector and his 
wife, Elizabeth Connor, a daughter of Lewis and Ann 
(Wharton) Connor, of Norfolk, and probably a sister 
or cousin to Terence Connor, the pioneer of that name 
in Perry County. All these nine sons were educated as 
civil engineers, and in 1808 came in a body to Indiana 
Territory, whose area then extended from the Missis- 
sippi River to Lake Superior. 

They established themselves at Kaskaskia, and 
formed a clan of remarkable brothers, who surveyed 
for the Government all the district known as Illinois 
after 1809, when set apart from Indiana. Besides this 
work, performed under appointment from Jared Mans- 
field, surveyor general of the Northwest Territory, 
whose headquarters from 1803 to 1812 were at Cin- 
cinnati, they were required to survey the lands of 
private individuals, many of which were old French 
grants difficult to outline, and for such intricate labour 
Congress, in December, 1809, allowed additional com- 
pensation to William and Elias Rector, upon the report 
of Senator Richard M. Johnson. 

The nine brothers were strikingly clannish, each six 
feet in height, straight as an arrow, fearless yet quiet, 
with a chivalrous sense of honour and manners of 
courtly dignity. However interesting their personality, 
it is, notwithstanding, scarcely correct to designate 
Elias Rector as an actual pioneer resident of Perry 



12 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

County. His entry was transferred within a few years 
to Nicholas J. Roosevelt, of New York City, a great- 
uncle of Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United 
States, 1902-1908. 

Roosevelt's purchase of the land may be accounted 
for by the circumstance that he commanded the first 
craft propelled by steam upon Western waters, the 
New Orleans, built after Robert Fulton's model, which 
made one successful trip from Pittsburg to New 
Orleans in the late autumn of 1811. That this boat 
landed at Troy is a longstanding tradition of creditable 
probability, and may be readily accepted ,as true, 
though equal credence can not be given to the parallel 
story that Robert Fulton, the inventor, was himself in 
Troy at the same time. The most reliable contempor- 
ary records accessible give no indication whatever that 
he was on board the New Orleans, even as a passenger, 
when the steamer left the upper Ohio. 

Nicholas Roosevelt's idea was, most likely, the estab- 
lishment of a wood-yard as a depot of fuel supply for 
future passing steamboats; such as the Tarascon 
family early maintained at Shippingport (Louisville), 
but his sojourn in the Middle West was of short dura- 
tion and his lands were soon transferred into the name 
of Robert Fulton. 

Abraham Smythe Fulton, a brother of Robert, is said 
to have come to Troy, making plans for a residence 
upon the highest eminence near by, and a famous 'log- 
rolling' was arranged for. With the boundless hos- 
pitality of the age, people were invited from many 
miles around, even as far as the scattered pioneers in 
Pike (later Dubois) County, along the "Buffalo Trace'^ 
whose existence had a singular influence in the settle- 
ment of Southern Indiana. 

Only the seal of the commonwealth is today a re- 
minder that buffaloes once ranged in countless num- 
bers all over the state, and so many thousands of the 
animals made their annual pilgrimage between the 
licks of Kentucky and the prairie savannas of Illinois, 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 13 

crossing into Indiana at the falls of the Ohio, that a 
well defined trail eventually marked the entire distance. 

A winter of extraordinary severity near the close 
of the Eighteenth Century froze so completely all vege- 
table growth that hundreds of wild animals perished 
from starvation and the buffalo herds never regained 
their loss, the last ever seen coming or going being 
within the first years of the Nineteenth Century. 

But along the pathway beaten by their hoofs, fol- 
lowed by the swift coureurs des hois, missionaries, salt- 
traders and other French pioneers, the eager feet of 
ambitious Virginians had already begun to press, and 
its eastern end was surveyed in 1805 by William 
Rector, while Buckingham's "Base Line" was run prac- 
tically parallel with the original Buffalo Trace across 
Pike County some miles north of what was once Perry 
County. 

A swiftly tragic end came, however, to the merri- 
ment on Fulton Hill. A mighty forest monarch, hewn 
through by sturdy hands, caught in its fall Abraham 
Smythe Fulton himself, crushing out his life beneath 
its ponderous weight. The material already prepared 
was left to decay upon the ground and Fulton's was the 
first body interred in the Troy cemetery. No stone 
ever marked the spot, but old inhabitants of Troy long 
pointed out the grave. His mercantile interests in the 
village were transferred to Vivian Daniel and John 
Daniel (the later a son-in-law of Joseph Wright,) but 
the woodland acreage stood in Robert Fulton's name 
for another generation, known as the 'Fulton Tract' 
event through several interesting changes of owner- 
ship. 

Aaron Fontaine, of Jefferson County, Kentucky, en- 
tered land near by about 1813, but was also a non-resi- 
dent owner, always making his home some miles west 
of Louisville, where he kept a ferry which still gives 
its name to Fontaine Ferry Park, an attractive pleas- 
ure resort in the now immediate suburbs of that city. 

Wait Vaughan was among the earliest to locate near 



14 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Cannelton's present site, entering on Section 15, Town- 
ship 6, South; Range 3, West; where his grave, with 
some others of his family, is still marked by inscribed 
stones standing on a hill-slope of "Wilber Farm," long 
the property of the late Ebenezer Wilber and now the 
home of his eldest son, Henry H. Wilber. 

Cavender, Cummings, Hoskinson and Thrasher were 
other pioneer landholders, besides Dosier and Cassel- 
berry whose names are preserved by two small creeks, 
respectively north and south of the original plat of 
Cannelton. 

Tobin Township, unquestionably, can boast the 
greatest number of very early settlers, as well as some 
of the most prominent if not actually the first in point 
of time, while no other portion of the county has re- 
tained perhaps so many of its pioneer families to the 
present day, lineal descendants in the same name 
occupying the identical lands entered over a century 
ago by their ancestors. 

This is due to the inducements for permanent resi- 
dence offered by the fertile soil of the rich 'bottom,' 
almost surrounded by an immense horseshoe bend of 
the Ohio River, scant two-and-a-half miles across at 
its narrowest point although washed by some fifteen 
miles of the stream's devious course. A hundred years 
of continuous abode, with the resulting intermarri- 
ages, have brought about a mingling of relationship in 
every degree among the old families, involved almost 
beyond the most expert genealogist and requiring a 
Herald's College to disentangle. 

At the extreme southern end of the bottom, land was 
entered in November, 1807, by the Rev. Charles Polk 
(then spelled Polke), the pioneer member in Perry 
County of a prominent and widespread American stock 
tracing their direct descent from Robert Polk and 
Magdalene Tasker, his v/ife, of Somxerset County, 
Maryland, a stronghold of Irish Presbyterianism 
whither they had fled with other families of high posi- 
tion, leaving behind them valuable estates in the 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 15 

mother-country and taking refuge in the province from 
internal dissension at home. 

In 1689, the names of Robert Polk and some of his 
sons appear among the list of loyal subjects in Somer- 
set County who addressed a letter to King William and 
Queen Mary. "Whitehall," the handsome estate, de- 
scended to William Polk I, the second son among nine 
children, himself the father of six. From his eldest 
son, William Polk II, who married M. Margaret Taylor, 
of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, sprang eight children, of 
whom Thomas I became a general in the American 
Revolution and father of William IV, a Revolutionary 
colonel, whose son, in turn, Leonidas, Bishop of Louis- 
iana, was a general under the Confederacy. 

Of the same generation (sixth) as the Bishop, James 
Knox Polk, of Tennessee, (grandson of Ezekiel, brother 
to Thomas I, of North Carolina, who signed the Meck- 
lenburg Declaration of Independence,) became eleventh 
President of the United States. 

The second son of William Polk I was Charles I, 
known in family chronicles as 'the Indian trader of the 

Potomac,' the father by his wife, Christiana , of 

five children, William V. Edmond I, Thomas II, Charles 
II and Sarah. The spelling Polke appears first in this 
generation. 

Nine children were the fruit of Edmond's marriage, 
the second being Charles III (the Reverend) whose 
wife, Willey Dever, bore him ten children. Several 
died in infancy, and the most conspicuous survivor was 
perhaps Greenville Polk, who became a colonel in the 
Indiana Militia. 

Jacob Weatherholt, who was a Revolutionary vet- 
eran of the Virginia Department, took up land in 
October, 1808, near the Rev. Charles Polke, and during 
the same year a tract two miles farther up the river 
was purchased by Alexander Miller. The Polk and 
Miller lines were early united through the marriage 
of his grandson, Henry J., son of Robert and Mary 



16 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Elizabeth (Evans) Miller, to Nancy, daughter of 
Greenville and Matilda (Simms) Polk. 

John Winchel was born, 1760, on the estate of the 
"Great Nine Partners," Dutchess County, Nev/ York, 
and at the age of nineteen v^as married there to Rachel, 
daughter of Alpheus Avery. They came in 1809 to 
Indiana, and although John Winchel lived but two 
years in the new home, dying September 14, 1811, — 
perhaps from som.e of the strange ailments which mys- 
teriously swept away so many sturdy pioneers in their 
prime — nine out of his ten children grew to maturity 
and married, rearing families of their own. 

These Winchels of the second generation may be here 
named, with their marriages, although considerations 
of space forbid carrying the line further. 1. John, Jr. 
2. Smith, m. Annie Mallory, 1805. 3. Catherine, m. 
Arad Simons. 4. Phoebe, m. Daniel Ryan. 5. Charity, 
m. Benjamin Wilson. 6. Margaret, ("Peggy") m. 
Israel Lamb. 7. Uriah, m. Sarah Weatherholt. 8. 
Roxana, m. Robert Graham. 9. Mary, m. Edmond 
Polk. 10. Cassandra, m. Matthew Ferguson. 

Perry County, as such, was unthought of when John 
Winchel's family settled in one of its choicest spots, as 
may be noted in the entry of the land which he bought 
in 1809, and for which a final grant was issued by the 
Government in 1818. In faded yet still legible ink, on 
parchment yellowed by ninety-seven years, one may 
read: 

"James Monroe, President of the United States of 
America : 

To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting: 
Know ye, that John Winchel, of Knox County, Indiana, 
having deposited in the General Land Office a Cer- 
tificate of the Register of the Land Office at Vincennes, 
whereby it appears that full payment has been made 
for the west half of section thirty-three, of township 
seven (south,) in range two (west,) of the Lands 
directed to be sold at Vincennes, by the Act of Con- 
gress, 'An Act Providing for the Sale of the Lands of 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 17 

the United States in the Territory northwest of the 
Ohio and above the mouth of Kentucky River/ or the 
Acts amendatory of the same ; There is granted by the 
United States unto the said John Winchel the half lot 
or section of Land above described, To have and to 
hold, the said half lot or section of Land, with the 
appurtenances, unto the said John Winchel, his heirs 
and assigns forever. 

"In testimony whereof, I have caused these Letters 
to be made patent, and the seal of the General Land 
Office to be hereunto affixed. 

"Given under my hand at the city of Washington, 
the twentieth day of December, in the year of Our Lord 
one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, and of the 
Independence of the United States of America the 
forty-second. 

'By the President, James Monroe. (Signed.) 

"Recorded in Volume 2, Page 77, Josiah Meigs, Com- 
missioner General Land Of!ice." 

This interesting document, one of very few — if not 
the only original — of its kind preserved in this vicinity, 
is now owned by a direct descendant of John Winchel 
(Doctor Arad A. Simons, of Cloverport, Kentucky,) 
through the marriage of Catherine Winchel to Arad 
Simons II, who came in 1816 to Perry County. He was 
born February 18, 1783, in Mansfield, Connecticut, a 
son of Arad Simons I (who had been in the Connecti- 
cut Marine Service, later a civil engineer) and his v/ife, 
Bridget Arnold. The Simons relationship in Tobin 
Township is extensive through the female line, though 
the name itself, as a consequence, is not so frequently 
met in the present generation as that of many other 
pioneer families. 

In this same region lands were taken up during 1814 
by Thomas and Henry Drinkwater; in 1815 by Nath- 
aniel Ewing; in 1816 by Smith Winchel, George Tobin 
and Thomas Tobin (the latter of whom married Sarah, 
a sister to the Rev. Charles Polke,) George Ewing and 

(2) 



18 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Lemuel Mallory, Revolutionary soldiers from New Jer- 
sey and Connecticut respectively, entered lands in 
1817; Abraham Finch, 1817; Martin Cockrell, 1819. 
Farther from the river settled Alexander Van Winkle, 
1815 ; Samuel and Daniel Hinton, 1817 ; Charity Sand- 
age, 1818 ; John Crist, 1818. 

Near the present site of Rome, in Section 3, Town- 
ship 7, south ; Range 3, west; on August 21, 1807, 182.3 
acres were bought by Samuel Connor, who was a con- 
spicuous figure in his generation. The son of a Revolu- 
tionary veteran, Terence Connor (or O'Connor) he was 
himself a captain during the War of 1812, and later a 
brigadier-general of militia. Terence Connor entered 
land in 1812, and two other Revolutionary soldiers, 
Richard Avitt and Abraham Hiley took up claims in 
1816 and 1817 respectively. 

John Lamb, 1809 ; Benjamin Huff, 1811 ; John Riggs, 
1813; William Frymire, 1813; (both near the "Big 
Hill" west of Rome;) John Crist, 1814, (the ground 
afterward a donation toward the county seat;) and 
John Claycomb, 1816; were all in the same general 
locality. Just south of where Derby now stands, along 
the river, John Faith bought 255.62 acres in Section 4, 
August 21, 1807; Thomas Cummings, 208,03 acres, in 
Section 9, September 26, 1807; Abraham Barger and 
David Groves, 1810; Dade Connor, 1815, Adam Shoe- 
maker, 1815; John Shoemaker, 1817; Ansel Hyde, 
1817, and Adam Glenn, 1818. 

Anderson Township took its name from the river, 
or creek, whose meanderings water its entire extent, 
and owing to the consequent irregularities of surface- 
high rocky hills intersected by deep valleys — but few 
entries of land were made prior to 1820 in a region now 
thickly dotted with comfortable homes of prosperous 
farmers. 

The earliest pioneers recorded were William Horner, 
Section 25, Township 5, South; Range 3, West; Eph- 
raim Cummings, Section 6, Township 5, South ; Range 
3, West ; John Donnelly, Section 8, Township 6, South ; 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 19 

Range 3, West. These, however, do not strictly coin- 
cide with the present boundary lines of Anderson 
Township, which then probably extended farther east 
than now. 

At an election held August 7, 1820, at the house of 
Daniel Purcell in Anderson Township, twenty-nine 
votes were polled, but it must be remembered that 
voters in that day were permitted to cast their ballots 
at any convenient polling-place, wherever they might 
be. Precincts, registration, Australian Systems, or 
voting machines were then undreamt of. Only a few 
names, therefore, are recognizable in this list today as 
still of Anderson Township: Jesse Barber, John 
Beardsley, John Cassidy, John Davis, Richard Davis, 
Theodorus Davis, Gideon Draper, Samuel Eslick, John 
Farris, Thomas Fitzgerald, David Gregory, Daniel 
Hendricks, James Hendricks, Caleb Hicks, William 
Hicks, Smiting Irish, ( ! sic Goodspeed's History, 
1885.) John Jarboe, Richard Kennedy, John Lanman, 
Samuel Morgan, Stephen Owens, Daniel Purcell, Wil- 
liam Royal, John Stuck, William Taylor, John Terry, 
Thomas B. Van Pelt, John Wheatley and William 
Woodall. 

John Terry, with his wife Esther (Brown) and their 
family, came on packhorses about 1815 from Botetourt 
County, Virginia, into Perry County, and during their 
journey of several weeks met many wild animals and 
Indians. The twelfth of their fourteen children, Elias 
Terry, whom his mother carried all the way in front of 
her saddle, married four times, becoming himself the 
father of eighteen children. He was *a mighty hunter 
before the Lord,' having in early times killed as many 
as six deer in one day. 

Two of his wives were of the Sandage family, daugh- 
ters of Thomas and Nancy (Simonson) Sandage, who 
came on horseback from South Carolina to Indiana, 
settling in Perry County about 1812. They had seven 
children, of whom the eldest, Nathan, married twice 
and had twelve children. Powell and Royal were other 



20 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

American families coming early into Anderson Town- 
ship, but its later settlement and development has been 
more marked through the thrift and industry of many 
Belgians, French, Swiss and Germans. 

Clark Township is said to have been thus designated 
to honour a prominent early settler, Robert Clark, who 
on November 27, 1819, was chosen a justice of the 
peace at an election polling fifteen ballots. Robert 
McKim also v/as elected to a similar position, and be- 
sides the two candidates the other votes were cast by 
John Asbell, Solomon Byrne, Ephraim Cummings, 
Alexander Cunningham, John Faith, Thomas Faith, 
William Goble, George Hensley, Wilson Hifel, Henry 
Hill, Robert Hills, James Lanman and William Rov/e. 

Ephraim Cummings' was the earliest entry of land, 
Section 31, Township 4, South, Range 3, West, 1816; 
John Faith, Section 17, Township 4, South, Range 3, 
West, 1817; James Ingram, Section 30, Township 4, 
South, Range 3, West, 1818 ; Robert Ev/ing, Section 3, 
Township 4, South, Range 3, West, 1819; Allen D. 
Thorn, Section 25, Township 3, South, Range 3, West, 
1819. 

Bradshaw, Chewning, Dyer, Goble, Hobbs, Lasher, 
Miles, Mosby, Van Winkle and Sumner all are names 
of constant recurrence in Clark Township, from its 
organization down to the present, as substantial citi- 
zens, landholders and politicians, no less than linked 
together by a network of intermarriages bringing 
about a perplexing entanglement of kinship back and 
forth unto the third and fourth generations. 

As an example it may be mentioned that James 
Lasher, a native of Pennsylvania, who had served 
under General Harrison in the War of 1812, and had 
laid the foundation of the Perry County court house 
and jail at Rome about 1820-22, was married there to 
Elizabeth Comstock (born in Kentucky) by whom he 
was the father of ten children, eight living to maturity : 
Abraham; Clarissa, m. P. H. Esarey; Isaac; Rebecca, 
m. Calvin Drysdale; Jacob; Elizabeth, m. Samuel 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 21 

Aders; Daniel; and Mary, m. Louis W. Goble. That 
both parents were of profound piety, according to the 
tenets of the Regular Baptist persuasion, finds evidence 
in the predominantly Scriptural names chosen for their 
offspring. 

Abraham Lasher, a native of Bullitt County, Ken- 
tucky, July 11, 1823, was married June 16, 1844, to 
Sarah, daughter of John and Martha (Thrasher) Lan- 
man, ten children being born to this union. Following 
her death, he took as his second wife, Sarah, daughter 
of William and Rachel (Litherland) Bennett, who bore 
him nine children. Nineteen grand-children in only 
one branch of the second generation suifice to show 
that the Lasher lineage can not be carried further 
within the limits of an ordinary chapter. 

Thirteen children were born to Hardin and Maria 
(Combs) Chev/ning; Daniel and Nancy (Spurrier) 
Weedman were the parents of fourteen; and other 
pioneer families of Clark Township were similarly pro- 
lific. 

Of famed prowess as a hunter and trapper in the 
central and northern part of Perry County was John 
Archibald, of whom an exciting adventure was related 
by the older generation. One day Archibald and his 
wife treed a bear near their log cabin, and the former 
proceeded to cut down the tree, but in its fall became 
entangled in the branches and was pinned to the 
ground with a broken leg. 

The bear rapidly made off into the forest, followed 
by the dogs, who had him again treed when Mrs. Arch- 
ibald arrived on the scene, panting from her swift pur- 
suit of the quarry. With her own trusty rifle she 
despatched the dangerous animal before missing for 
the first time her husband. Hastening back she 
learned only then the cause of his detention, so set to 
work with axe and handspikes to release him. Then 
almost carrying him into the house, she set out for a 
doctor, who dressed the v/oimd and set the broken limb, 



22 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

although its use was never fully recovered, after which 
she brought home the slain bear. 

Oil Township, like Anderson, derived its appellation 
from a stream of similar name flowing through its 
borders, Oil Creek emptying into the Ohio River near 
Derby and along whose banks the first comers found 
many indications of crude oil, never sufficient, however, 
to prove commercially profitable. 

The first permanent settler in this northeastern por- 
tion of Perry County was unquestionably John Esarey, 
a native of Wales, who, prior to the American Revolu- 
tion, came over into Delaware County, Pennsylvania, 
where in 1776 he married Sarah Clark. The Clark 
name has been perpetuated through each succeeding 
generation of the Esareys down to the present, and 
verbal tradition has always claimed a connection with 
the family of George Rogers Clark. This, however, is 
open to doubt, in the lack of documentary evidence, as 
George Rogers Clark's lineage was Virginian, and it 
seems far more probable that Captain John Clark, of 
Revolutionary fame in Pennsylvania, who in 1774 was 
a grand juror from Northumberland County, and later 
lived in Union County where he died February 22, 
1809, near Mifflinburg, was the military relative of 
Sarah (Clark) Esarey. Such is the data furnished by 
Miss Martha Bladen Clark, an expert genealogist, who 
is Corresponding Secretary of the Lancaster County 
Historical Society, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 

John Esarey emigrated in 1783 to Kentucky, living 
several years near Louisville, afterward on Doe Run 
and later at Hill Grove, in Meade County. From there 
he crossed over to the Hoosier State in January, 1810, 
at "Indiana Ferry," landing at the mouth of Little Blue 
River. 

Through singular coincidence the mouth of Big Blue 
River, some twelve miles farther up the Ohio, was 
rendered yet more dramatically historic in the family 
by a grandson. Captain Jesse C. Esarey, commanding 
the Second Battalion of the Home Guard, which cap- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 23 

tured on June 19, 1863, Captain Hines' invading Con- 
federate cavalry, the first instance of the War Between 
the States where Southern troops actually crossed the 
border into any Northern commonwealth, antedating 
by a fortnight both Morgan's Raid and Lee's invasion 
of Pennsylvania. 

A man named France rowed the pioneer Esarey 
family in a small canoe, while the laden packhorses 
bearing the household effects were encouraged to swim 
across. From the landing point on Little Blue River, 
John Esarey, aided by his several sturdy sons, hacked 
a way twelve miles through the virgin wilderness, 
locating at length upon what is now known as the A. W. 
Walker farm in Perry County, then a part of Knox. 
From that day to the present there have been Esareys 
in Perry County, and their Centennial Reunion in 
September, 1910, was the first of its kind ever held in 
the county. 

One of John and Sarah (Clark) Esarey's sons was 
Jonathan David, who married Sarah Shaver, a daugh- 
ter of Jacob and Nancy (Allen) Shaver, whose brother, 
Peter Shaver, married an Esarey daughter, thus early 
beginning the complication of intermarriages follow- 
ing ever since. 

Jonathan D. and Sarah (Shaver) Esarey were the 
parents of twelve children, of whom only three will be 
mentioned, to illustrate the prolific offspring: Hiram 
Esarey, born April 10, 1813, married October 10, 1834, 
Sophia, daughter of Robert and Delilah (Phillips) 
Walker, born January 28, 1810. They had nine chil- 
dren, among whom Eliza and Matilda married, respec- 
tively, John S. and James S. Frakes, sons of Grayson 
and Mary (Shoemaker) Frakes. 

Jesse C, Esarey married Susanna Hughes, and 
among their eleven children the eldest two, Mary E. 
and John Clark, married a brother and a sister, John 
W. and Barbara Ewing, children of Samuel and Maria 
(Falkenborough) Ewing. Another daughter became 
Mrs. John W. Frakes. 



24 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Jacob Esarey, born August 17, 1829, married, No- 
vember 6, 1851, Barbara, daughter of Andrew and 
Melinda (Falkenborough) Elder, born July 28, 1832, 
and by her was father of eleven children. Two of 
these, Melinda A. and Eva E., married brothers, Emile 
and John A. L. Dupaquier, sons of John and Mary 
(Shoppie) Dupaquier, who came from France into Oil 
Township toward the middle of the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury. 

In 1813 Robert Walker entered land on Section 18, 
Township 4, South, Range 1, West, (then Warrick 
County) and in 1815 William Deen came across from 
Kentucky and in the same section took up land which 
has never passed out of the family during a hundred 
years, but is owned and occupied in 1915 by his great- 
grandson, Thomas J. Deen. He also entered land in 
Union Township, on which were then some interesting 
earthworks, remains of the Indians or of the Mound 
Builders, which Time has long since obliterated. 

Although William Deen I and his wife, Mary Hardin, 
were parents of only three children, — William, Stephen 
and Richard — the third generation was given a good 
start through the marriage of William Deen II to Ary 
Shirley, ten children being the fruit of their union. 
John, their eldest, married Mary ("Polly") Abel, v/ho 
bore him six children, while eleven children were off- 
spring of the second child, Richard, by his marriage 
with Christina Springer. 

Joshua, their first born, married Helena, daughter 
of William and Rachel (Shoemaker) Reily, and through 
one of their four children — Robert L., who married 
Eveline Frakes — the Deen line has now been carried 
two generations further, to the seventh. 

The custom of intermarriage was duly honoured 
among the other children of Richard and Christina 
(Springer) Deen, John H. and Mary C. marrying, re- 
spectively, Martha and Asbury V/alker, (ten children 
resulting from the former of these unions). Marenda 
m. Edward McNaughton; Willikm H. m. Tilla Dahl; 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 25 

Richard W. m. Sarah Darlington ; while Oil Township 
connection is immediately indicated by the respective 
marriages of Emmeline to James Esarey, Minerva to 
Cyrus Holmes, and Thomas J. (the youngest) to 
Sarepta Frakes. 

James Reily was only two years later than the Deens 
in coming from Kentucky, entering in 1817 the land 
which his family owned until 1887. By his wife, 
Catherine Ewing Jamison, he was the father of ten 
children, and the inevitable double marriage occurred 
when the eldest two, Elizabeth and Annie, married 
respectively, Phillips and Samuel Walker. From the 
second of these two sprang seven children, two of 
whom married Deens, and to Asbury and Mary C. 
(Deen) Walker were born ten children. Robert W. 
Reily, who married Rebecca Horton, had only one son 
among seven children, and the two children of William 
E. and Rachel (Shoemaker) Reily were daughters, 
Sarepta (Mrs. R. A. Alexander) and Helena (Mrs. 
Joshua Deen) so the name of Reily is now less fre- 
quently met with than sundry others. 

All the early men were famous hunters, and among 
them James Falkenborough once had a thrilling adven- 
ture with wolves in the dead of winter. While out in 
the forest, nine wolves began following him so closely 
as to endanger his safety, although they did not oifer 
to attack him. One at a time he shot several of the 
animals, which the others devoured as fast as they 
were killed, and by thus holding them in check, he was 
able to reach a place of security. 

Another 'bear story' handed down among the Reily 
descendants, and told to Helena (Reily) Deen by her 
grandmother, Catherine Ewing (Jamison) Reily, nar- 
rates how the family were much annoyed by the dis- 
appearance of several pigs soon after they v/ere settled 
in their new home. One night, when her husband was 
away, a loud squealing among the pigs awakened Mrs. 
Reily. Going out to investigate, with her eldest two 
daughters, Elizabeth and Annie, they found a bear try- 



26 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

ing to carry off a pig. Giving chase, they pursued the 
bear some distance up the hollow before he made his 
escape. The pig was saved, but in her haste Mrs. Reily 
lost a slipper which she was never able to find again. 

Since Hurricane Township within so short a time 
became part of Spencer County, no space will here be 
given to its early settlement or subsequent history. 
Union Township, however, was created only a few 
years later than the others, and among its first entries 
were several in that small portion of the county lying 
east of the second principal meridian. In 1810 Joel 
Suttles settled on Section 17 ; John Heddon and Joshua 
Richardson on Sections 20 and 29 ; Jacob Davis on Sec- 
tion 30. In 1811, Joseph Springer, on Section 18; 
Valentine Borer, Daniel and Elias Heddon, on Section 
19. Also in 1811 John Davis entered Section 21, Town- 
ship 5, South, Range, 1, West; Jesse Shacklett, Section 
13, Township 5, South, Range 1, West; in 1813, Steph- 
en Deen, Section 11, and William Shirley, Section 13, 
in 1817; Anthony Horton, Abraham and Benjamin 
Murphy, on Section 33, Township 4, South, Range 1, 
West, in 1817 ; and William Mitchell, Section 33, (later 
the site of Derby,) in 1818. 

Smith Township was an important locality in the 
early decades, but will not be considered separately, 
its noteworthy pioneer settlers having been already 
mentioned in this chapter under Oil and Clark Town- 
ships, into which it was absorbed upon the reorgan- 
ization of the county in May, 1840. At that time Deer 
Creek Township was created, but existed only until 
June, 1853, when abolished. 

Leopold Township was formed out of Union, Oil, 
Clark and Anderson in June, 1847, upon the petition 
of sixty citizens, the petition having been presented in 
December, 1846, by John Courcier, a veteran of the 
War of 1812. It was nam.ed in honour of Leopold I, 
King of the Belgians, a large colony from that kingdom 
having emigrated hither, in conjunction with the mis- 
sionary work of the Rev. Augustus Bessonies. Dur.iig 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 27 

its original and earliest existence entries were made by 
Aaron Cunningham, 1815; John Schnell, 1816; John 
Frakes, John Mayo, Priscilla Crist, Daniel Miller, 
1817 ; James Cassidy, 1819. 

The earliest available list of taxpayers is that of 
June-July, 1815, when the county's area was much 
larger than now, so that among the three hundred and 
nineteen names enrolled are many who were soon 
transferred to Spencer County, hence an accurate 
separate roster would be impracticable, save at labour 
not justifiable. 

The total amount of county tax collected was 
$300,021/2, and of territorial tax, $70.80l^. Abraham 
Smythe Fulton was the highest taxpayer, $11.25, own- 
ing one thousand acres (!) of 'first-class land.' James 
McDaniel was the next highest, $10,881/4, on his tavern 
at Troy, four horses and one negro. Another negro 
was owned by Grace Barber, there being only two 
slaves in the county, and one free coloured taxpayer, 
Richard Partridge. In their order the next highest 
taxes were paid by John Stephenson, $7.0714 ; Charles 
Polke, $6,531/2; William Black, $5.88; James Bodine. 
$5.70; and Francis Posey, $5,361/2. 



CHAPTER III. 

FIRST CIRCUIT COURT AND OFFICERS AT TROY 

By THE Territorial Legislature in September, 1814, 
a dedimus was issued Ratliff Boon to swear in all 
officers of the new Perry County, in pursuance whereof 
the official positions were filled as follows: Associate 
Judges, the Rev. Charles Polke (Polk) and James 
McDaniel, Sr. ; Sheriff, Samuel Connor; Clerk, (also at 
that time Recorder,) Solomon Lamb; Coroner, Francis 
Posey. 

Ratliff Boon, while a true and typical pioneer, was 
not of the Daniel Boone family but came about 1807-09 
from Georgia, through Tennessee and Kentucky into 
Indiana, locating in Warrick County where his import- 
ant services were recognized by naming the county seat 
— Boonville — and Boon Township in his honour. Leav- 
ing v/ith Solomon Lamb in October, 1814, a dedimus to 
swear in all further officers, his connection with Perry 
County ceased, except that in 1818 he was elected 
Senator for the early 'shoe-string' district then embrac- 
ing Perry, Spencer, Warrick, Vanderburg and Posey 
Counties. 

Perry County's first Circuit Court was called to meet 
at the house of James McDaniel, Jr., April 3, 1815, but 
a majority of the three judges not being present, it 
was adjourned until the following day when a majority 
still being absent, it was adjourned "until court in 
course." Three months later, therefore, or on July 3, 
1815, at the same place, (designated by law,) the first 
session of court convened with full attendance; presi- 
dent judge, Isaac Blackford ; associate judges, Thomas 
Polk (succeeding the Rev. Charles Polk,' who had re- 
signed October, 1814,) and James McDaniel, Sr. 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 29 

Isaac Blackford was a resident of Salem and the 
first Clerk-Recorder of Washington County at the time 
of his elevation to the bench. He did more than any 
other one man toward establishing the early courts of 
Indiana upon a correct, sound basis, and the name of 
Blackford County (organized 1839), is a memorial to 
his invaluable judiciary service. Judge Blackford was 
one of the earliest members of the Supreme Court 
bench, editing the first eight volumes of its decisions, 
which are regarded as more authoritative than any 
others of Indiana's Supreme Court and are cited for 
precedent in pleadings in every English-speaking court 
room where common law prevails. 

The first Prosecuting Attorney, by appointment, was 
Davis Floyd, a young Virginian, who had served under 
General George Rogers Clark and had settled in 
"Clark's Grant" (later Clark County) where he kept 
a tavern and operated a ferry across the Ohio. He had 
been appointed Recorder of his county, in 1801, and 
Sheriff, in 1802, by Governor Harrison, and in 1805 
was its Representative in the Territorial Legislature, 
being chosen Clerk of the House. 

A temporary suspension of his political career, occur- 
ring a little later, was his indictment and conviction 
for implication in the Aaron Burr treason conspiracy. 
This episode was the most conspicuous event allying 
Indiana with Burr's project, and Floyd's sentence was 
for only three hours' imprisonment, so that he soon 
regained his original standing. He represented Harri- 
son County in the Constitutional Convention of 1816 
and was afterward Circuit Judge in his district. 
Descriptions portray Floyd as a tall man, of dark com- 
plexion, with heavy voice, of rapid speech, an able jury 
lawyer and especially skilful in the management of a 
case in court. 

As a practising attorney was present, at Troy, Judge 
William Prince, then of Knox County, in whose honour 
the county seat of Gibson County v/as called Princeton, 



30 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

and who succeeded Judge Blackford in April, 1817, on 
the bench of Perry County. 

Sheriff Samuel Connor called the first grand jury as 
follows: Peter Barber, Andrew Collins, Jacob Davis, 
Barnett DeWitt, Jonathan D. Esarey, Edward Eskins, 
Jesse Green, David Groves, Elias Hedden, Abraham 
Hiley, James Kellams, Benjamin Lamar, Elijah La- 
mar, Ezra Lamb, Jesse Morgan, Thomas Morton, Alex- 
ander Murphy, John Shields, William Stark, William 
Taylor and Jacob Weatherholt. Twenty-two in all, two 
less than the number then required by law, but no other 
names are shown on record. This empanelment, with 
the appointment of a prosecutor, comprised the first 
day's proceedings. 

On the next day the first case called for trial was an 
appeal brought up from justice's court: William Gib- 
son, appellant, vs. Abraham Hiley, appellee. Appellant 
desired to introduce documentary evidence not pro- 
duced before justice's court, but was ruled out. De- 
fendant prayed judgment for want of jurisdiction. 
Argument was had and case was continued, — a pre- 
cedent of continuance ever since locally honoured, and 
not in the breach. 

Indictments returned by the grand jury v/ere: 
Habeas corpus, usurpation, slander, rape, adultery, one 
each; for unlawfully selling an estray horse, assault 
and battery, bigamy, divorce, two each; profanity ( !), 
twenty-five. 

The first cause tried was Indiana Territory vs. John 
Cooper for assault and battery on Daniel Weathers. 
Not guilty was defendant's plea, and the first jury was 
called. Dade Connor, William Cummings, Richard 
Deen, John Farris, James Falkenborough, Joseph 
Hanks, Daniel Hazel, Daniel McLaughlin, Daniel 
Taylor and John Weatherholt. David Floyd repre- 
sented the Territory and John Fletcher, the defendant. 
The verdict returned was: "We, the jury, do find the 
defendant Not Guilty." The divorce cases were 
ordered published and the first court then adjourned. 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 31 

The straggling hamlet comprising perhaps a score of V' 
log cabins was regularly surveyed about this time by 
Francis Posey, with Samuel Moore as his assistant, 
and the plat of ninety-six lots and a public square was 
duly recorded in March, 1815, under the official title 
"Troy," its street names remaining today as then. 

Francis Posey was the son of Thomas Posey, the 
distinguished Virginian to whose name Posey County 
became a memorial on the same day of Perry County's 
christening. Thomas Posey's boyhood home was a 
plantation adjoining "Mount Vernon," and Washing- 
ton's influence secured for the young lad at an early 
age a commission in the British army from Lord Dun- 
more, then governing the royal province of Virginia. 
Through the same valuable friendship he was made a 
general in the American Revolution. At its close he 
located in the new 'Volunteer State,' Tennessee, which 
he represented in the United States Senate when 
President Madison, on February 27, 1813, appointed 
him the last Governor of Indiana Territory, succeeding 
General John Gibson, who had been for a year acting- 
governor in the enforced absence of Governor William 
Henry Harrison, as Commander-in-Chief of the Army 
of the Northwest. 

Troy's earliest years were prosperous and hopeful. 
As the seat of an extensive new county it commanded 
the trade of many miles around, its geographical loca- 
tion and remoteness from other towns of consequence 
making it an important shipping-point and giving it a 
promise of growth which future developments were not 
destined to fulfill. 

Reuben Bates was an early merchant who carried 
on a trade with New Orleans by flat-boat, shipping 
pork, corn, beeswax, hay, wood and other farm pro- 
ducts, bringing back general merchandise from the 
South in return. For a while he was in partnership 
with James Worthington, but for much longer traf- 
ficked alone. Another conspicuous trader was James 
Taylor, who maintained large beef and pork packing 



32 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

houses at the mouth of Anderson River. He continued 
this for many years, until succeeded by his son, Green 
B. Taylor, who then conducted the business upon a 
scale even larger. 

Other residents during this decade may be grouped 
among the organizers of the first Methodist class in 
Troy, some time prior to 1820, although some of the 
names given in a list published by Goodspeed in 1885 
could not have been members so early : John Huffman, 
Jane Huffman, James Willen and wife, Warren Dun- 
can, Lawrence and Ann Protzman, William and Cyn- 
thia McKinley, Harvey Spillman, Mary Spillman, et al. 
About the same period the Baptists, headed by Reuben 
Bates and Betsey Bates, his wife, organized a society, 
among their co-workers being Bennett Phillips, Thomas 
Phillips, Rebecca Phillips, James Taylor, Abby Taylor, 
Green B. Taylor, the Rev. John B. Harpole, America 
Harpole and others. 

Solomon Lamb taught school in Troy at a very early 
day, and tradition describes the first woman teacher in 
the county to have been one Annis Crocker, a pictures- 
que figure of Perry County's 'Iliad,' captured in her in- 
fancy by the Indians and rescued from them after a 
romantic childhood spent in the red men's wigwam. 
George Phillips is said to have been a teacher in the 
first log school house before 1819, on the site of the 
present High School building, which was erected in 
1872, to succeed a one-story edifice for which Warren 
Duncan and James Willen had made the brick by hand 
in 1834-35. 

Troy's first and only Court House was also a log 
structure, which stood on the corner of Main and 
Franklin Streets, a site now filled by the business block 
of Theobald T. Gaesser. Court was held from the be- 
ginning at the house of James McDaniel, Jr., David 
Raymond follov/ing Judge Blackford in April, 1816, 
and being himself succeeded by William Prince in 
April, 1817, when the first seal v/as adopted, a small 
one bearing the words "Perry Circuit." This term was 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 33 

the last session in the McDaniel building, as the new 
court house was finished by its builders, James Taylor 
and Aquila Huff, in time for Judge Prince to convene 
the July term within its walls. 

Aquila Huff was a pioneer settler in the vicinity of 
Troy and as such deserves mention here, although the 
land upon which he located in 1815 remained a part of 
Perry County for only three years. He was the sixth 
child of John Huff, (Hough) a private in the Maryland 
Line during the American Revolution, and Elizabeth 
Dodderidge, his wife, who about 1784 emigrated West- 
ward from Maryland expecting to travel down the 
Ohio River. 

Near Pittsburg, while hunting game, John Huff was 
attacked and killed by Indians, but his widow and chil- 
dren continued their journey by boat with other emi- 
grants as far as Breckinridge County, Kentucky, 
where they erected log block-houses for their residence 
and protection. In some such rude fortification Aquila 
Huff was reared from five to twenty-one years of age. 

In 1807 he married Mary, daughter of Stephen 
Rawlins, coming eight years later into Indiana, where 
he resided until his death in 1857, meanwhile holding 
many positions of responsibility. Huff Township, 
Spencer County, was named for him when organized 
in 1837. Many direct descendants of John and Eliza- 
beth (Dodderidge) Huff, still under the family name 
as well as through female lines, reside today in Perry 
County, besides at other points far more remote. 

A very early tavern-keeper was Jacob Protzman, a 
native of Pennsylvania, who came to Troy from Nelson 
County, Kentucky, where he had married Catherine, 
daughter of Thomas and Judith (Ferguson) Lewis, a 
descendant of the extensive Virginia Lewis family 
through the Fairfax (later Loudoun) County branch. 
On March 4, 1828, their daughter Louisa was married 
to a rising young physician of Troy, Doctor Cotton, 
who lived to become Perry County's leading medical 
authority, also a man of prominence in political circles. 

(3) 



34 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Robert Greenberry Cotton was born August 8, 1804, 
near Bloomfield, Nelson County, Kentucky, the son of 
Edmund and Sallie (Dorsey) Cotton. His mother 
belonged to one of Maryland's finest families, and the 
Dorsey (d'Orsay) lineage is widespread from Colonial 
days to the present, embracing names which adorn 
many pages of history and romance. 

To mention but one among her notable ancestry, it is 
due to say that Nicholas Greenberry, whose name her 
son worthily carried, arrived July 9, 1674, at Patuxent, 
Maryland, with his wife Anne, their children, Charles 
and Katherine, and three servants, in the stanch little 
ship 'Constant Friendship.' He soon became a leader 
in the royal province, holding numerous posts of 
honour and responsibility, including that of Governor. 
On page 338 of "Side-Lights on Maryland History," 
Volume n, (published Baltimore, 1913,) it is stated 
that the descendants of Nicholas Greenberry "include 
more men and women of national importance than can 
be traced to any other one personage in Colonial his- 
tory." 

Doctor Cotton was a member of the Legislature for 
a number of years, serving as Representative from 
Perry County, 1837-39, 1841-42, 1848-49 ; and as joint 
Senator from Perry, Spencer and Warrick, 1842-45. 
By a majority of only one vote was he defeated August 
5, 1850, by Samuel Frisbie, as delegate to the Constitu- 
tional Convention, but he did not live to have filled the 
ofl^ice even if chosen, his death occurring in the follow- 
ing month, September 11, 1850, his widow, one son and 
four daughters surviving him. 



CHAPTER IV. 

REMOVAL OF COUNTY SEAT TO ROME. 

By official returns, certified to by the clerks of the 
existing thirteen counties and forwarded to the Terri- 
torial House of Representatives at their session be- 
ginning December 4, 1815, Indiana's population was 
63,897, of which Perry County contained 1,720, includ- 
ing 350 white males over twenty-one. On the 14th of 
the month a memorial was adopted which Jonathan 
Jennings, Territorial Delegate, two weeks later laid 
before Congress praying admission to statehood. 

The memorial was referred to a committee with Mr. 
Jennings as its chairman, by whom on January 5, 1816, 
a bill was reported to the House of Representatives of 
the United States enabling the people of Indiana Terri- 
tory to form a Constitution and State government, and 
for the admission of such state into the Union upon an 
equal footing with the original states. After amend- 
ment in some of its particulars, the bill was passed by 
Congress, and with the signature of James Madison, 
President, became law on April 19, 1816, 

In conformity with the provisions of such law, on 
Monday, May 13, 1816, in the several counties of the 
territory an election was held for forty-three members 
of a Constitutional Convention, chosen in accordance 
with an apportionment which had been made by the 
Territorial Legislature and confirmed by an act of 
Congress. 

Perry County was represented by the Rev. Charles 
Polk, whose name appears in the recorded proceedings 
as "Polke of Perry," a cousin of his William Polk, be- 
ing "Polke of Knok," a resident of Vincennes. Both 
men were of that prolific family whose American pro- 



36 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

genitors were Robert Bruce Polk and Magdalene 
Tasker, his wife, who came from Scotland and settled 
in Somerset County, Maryland, prior to 1689. The 
convention met June 10, at Cory don, which had be- 
come the territorial capital in 1813, winning out in a 
contest with Madison, Vevay, Lawrenceburg, Charles- 
town, Clarksville and Jeffersonville. Jonathan Jen- 
nings was chosen presiding officer, William Hendricks, 
secretary, and the meetings continued from day to day 
until June 29, when, having completed the work of 
forming a State Constitution, the session closed by ad- 
journment sine die. 

Despite the massive blue-limestone walls and the 
fifteen-foot ceilings of the capitol building, then new, 
the warmth of June sunshine in Southern Indiana made 
its pent-up inclosure irksome to these sturdy pioneers, 
inured to hardships of the outdoors, so many of their 
deliberations were held under the shade of the huge 
elm tree which yet stands near the bank of Big Indian 
Creek, some two hundred yards northwest of the public 
square. This tree is Corydon's pride and glory, its 
preservation being the particular charge of Hoosier 
Elm Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. 

A delightful pen-picture of this constitutional as- 
sembly, drawn by Miss Julia S. Conklin in her History 
of Indiana, deserves reproduction here, since it may 
be termed a composite portrait whereof Perry Coun- 
ty's delegate was a component part. 

"They were a grave, serious body of men, these 
fathers of our Constitution," Miss Conklin writes, "and 
is assembled in our legislative halls today would be a 
strange-looking company, so greatly have manners and 
dress changed since Indiana became a state. 

"They were not much given to fashion, save the 
fashion of the back-woodsmen, and were as rough and 
rugged in appearance as the country they represented. 
Many of them wore homespun — handwoven clothing — 
made by the pioneer wife and mother without the aid 
of a sewing machine, cut by rules unknown to the 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 37 

tailors of today, for fit and style were a secondary 
consideration, warmth and wearing- qualities being 
first. 

"Some of them wore the buckskin trousers and coon- 
skin cap of the pioneer, a garb well suited to the 
exposures they encountered ; heavy high - topped 
boots covering their feet and lower limbs. But rude 
as they may have been in appearance, they were men 
of common sense, firm in integrity and honest purpose, 
some of whom became truly illustrious in the early 
history of Indiana." 

The same clear-minded, unpretending practical 
judgment which sent these legislators of unquestion- 
able patriotism and moral stability into the fresh air 
for consultation, gave Indiana a Constitution inferior 
to none that was in existence at the time. Its concise 
clarity of style, its just and comprehensive pro- 
visions for maintenance of civil and religious liberty, 
its mandates designed to provide for public welfare, to 
protect the rights of the people individually and col- 
lectively, all bespeak of its framers their familiarity 
with the theories of the Declaration of Independence, 
their Territorial experience under provisions of the 
Ordinance of 1787, and their knowledge of the princi- 
ples of the national constitution. With such landmarks 
in view, the result was a document rendering compara- 
tively easy the labours of similar conventions called 
later in other states and territories. 

No handwriting on the wall, however, needed inter- 
pretation for the Trojans of 1816, to signify that their 
kingdom was numbered and finished. Just as changed 
territorial limits had cost Vincennes her position as 
capital, so when the western boundary of Perry county 
was moved from Pigeon Creek eastward to Anderson 
River, by the act of January 10, 1818, creating Spencer 
county, Troy's value as a central point vanished, and 
another act was soon passed by the same Legislature 
providing for a relocation of the county seat of Perry 
county. 



38 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Samuel Snyder, of Warwick county; Samuel Cham- 
bers, of Orange county; William Harrington, of Gib- 
son county; Ignatius Abell and Jacob Zenor, of Har- 
rison county, by this act were appointed commission- 
ers to meet on the first Monday in March (2d), 1818, 
at the house of Aaron Cunningham, to re-locate the 
seat of justice for Perry county. 

Further provision of the act authorized Samuel Con- 
nor, county agent, to annul with every individual who 
so desired all contracts made for the sale of lots in 
Troy, each purchaser surrendering his lot and receiv- 
ing back the money paid thereon, with interest. The 
donations of the McDaniels, except such portions as 
had been sold, reverted to them and they were to be 
paid with interest the price received for lots given. 
The town plat of Troy should be vacated, should the 
citizens so desire, and the remaining land owned by 
the county was to be advertised and sold, ten per cent 
of the proceeds realized to be used for the establish- 
ment and maintenance of a county seminary. All 
these provisions, except vacating the town site, were 
duly carried into effect. 

The labors of these commissioners (or a majority 
of them) when they met were conducted along lines 
closely parallel to the proceedings of that earlier board 
which had chosen Troy. Accessibility and convenience 
in transportation logically commanded a location upon 
the only commercial highway, the Ohio river, and after 
due deliberation and inspection the choice fell upon a 
site approximately bisecting the winding course of the 
county's southern boundary. This was opposite the 
mouth of Sinking Creek in Breckinridge County, Ken- 
tucky, now Stephensport, where the allied Stephens, 
Minor and Holt families had taken up extensive gov- 
ernment grants for services in the American Revo- 
lution, Nicholas Minor HI, a member of the same fam- 
ily connection, coming early into Perry County, where 
many descendants perpetuate his name to the present. 

Here, upon a somewhat narrow though level tract 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 39 

projecting into Kentucky, in May, 1818, Uriah Cum- 
mings had laid out under the name Washington a town- 
site embracing a public square, one hundred and 
eighty-nine lots, and fifteen outlots. With the excep- 
tion of such lots as had already been sold, all this land 
was given by Cummings to the county, in consideration 
of fixing the county seat thereon, besides the donation 
a little later of an additional forty acres adjoining. At 
the same time thirty-five adjacent acres were sold to 
the county by John Crist for $300. 

By way of explaining the speedy change of name, 
it should be stated that it was necessary, to avoid du- 
plication, the Father of his Country having been hon- 
oured during the preceding year, on August 18, 1817, 
when the newly located county seat of Daviess County 
assumed the title of Washington in substitution for 
that of Liverpool, the style under which it had been 
originally platted. 

The many-sided Benjamin Franklin appears to have 
been next in favour among distinguished Americans 
worthy of veneration, so the plat was re-entered under 
the name Franklin in the autumn of 1818, although the 
last court ever held at Troy, in October of that year, 
with David Hart as president judge, adjourned to 
meet in the following February "at Washington." 

When, however, the initial court at the new county 
seat convened, in February, 1819, it was at Franklin, 
Richard Daniel producing his commission as president 
judge, with James McDaniel, Sr,, and John Stephen- 
son as his associates. Willis C. Osborn was admitted 
to practice, though little was on the docket save cases 
of assault and battery. At the term in May, 1819, 
Samuel Fribie, Charles I. Battell, G. W. Johnson and 
G. W. Lindsey were admitted. James Main obtained 
a verdict of $45 for slander, against John Dunigan; 
James McDaniel recovered judgment for $349, with 
interest from April, 1815, against Thomas Polk, James 
Lanman and David D. Grimes, county commissioners, 



40 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

although upon what plea is not indicated in any rec- 
ord found. 

Just why the title of Franklin was not retained may 
never be known to this generation — whether practical 
considerations, as in the case of Washington, or merely 
sentimental bias toward antiquity. The probability of 
the latter is based on a peculiarity of the times, es- 
pecially marked in Governor William Henry Harrison 
— an exalted reverence for the republics of Greece and 
Rome. 

Our earliest statesmen naturally directed their at- 
tention to those governments in the search for experi- 
ence whereby they might guide our first tottering foot- 
steps, and such — added to the circumstance that cul- 
ture in that day was indicated by its wealth of classical 
allusion — gave to everything set down in writing a 
strong flavour of the antique. 

Harrison far surpassed even his contemporaries in 
this respect, and even in his papers of state, declares 
Jacob Piatt Dunn, the Indiana historian, "if Leonidas, 
Epaminondas and Lycurgus escaped, Cincinnatus, Sci- 
pio or the Gracchi were sure to be taken in the net." 

Not infrequently is it the idiosyncrasies of great 
men, rather than their stronger characteristics which 
are copied by admiring followers, hence the surmise 
that General Harrison's choice of Corydon as the name 
for Harrison County's capital (drawn, we are told, 
from an old-time classic ballad which was one of his 
favourites), had its weighty influence in the second 
and final change in the nomenclature of Perry County's 
metropolis. 

No mythical Romulus and Remus figure in local tra- 
ditions of the period, the level land boasts no Seven 
Hills as a "throne of beauty" in geographical sugges- 
tiveness, yet classic history was again drawn upon by 
the sponsors for the infant community, and a new 
Rome was christened, whose history has its beginning 
not Anno Urbe Condita (from Foundation of the 
City) but from the term of September, 1819, when the 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 41 

name Rome first appears on the records of the Perry 
Circuit Court, Samuel Liggett and Samuel Hall being 
then admitted to the bar. 

As ancient Rome outlived the first Troy, even so the 
years when all Perry County roads led to Rome out- 
numbered the brief period of Trojan dominance. Best 
and proudest, however, were the earliest days of Hoo- 
sier Rome, Destiny holding in store for the county 
capital on the Ohio River a period of decline and fall 
swifter and more complete than that of the Empire 
which once held sway in the Eternal City beside the 
yellow Tiber. 



CHAPTER V 

REVOLUTIONARY VETERANS AND SOLDIERS OF 1812 

Six months after the first term of court on record 
as held at "Rome," or in February, 1820, James R. E. 
Goodlett succeeded Richard Daniel as president judge, 
with Samuel Hall as prosecutor. It is related of Judge 
Goodlett that he was neither ready nor brilliant as a 
practitioner, thus lacking two of the qualities essen- 
tial to a successful advocate; but, always forming his 
opinions after mature deliberation, he was in his 
proper sphere upon the bench and continued as judge 
until 1832, residing for several years of this time in 
Paoli, Orange County. 

Several certificates of service in the American Revo- 
lution were entered in the court records during Judge 
Goodlett's term, and reference will here be made to 
those "venerable men — come down from a former gen- 
eration," who had lived, as Webster eloquently said, 
"to see their country's independence established, and 
to sheathe their swords from war." The data given 
has been drawn from various sources wherever pos- 
sibly available, in the wish to give the fullest credit 
due each individual. 

Premier mention must be awarded to Terence Con- 
nor, a Virginia scion of that distinguished O'Connor 
family whose name occurs on well-nigh every page of 
Irish history. Not, however, on such account is he 
listed first here, but because of his own personal value 
as a pioneer resident of Perry County and the exten- 
sive progeny surviving him. His direct descendants 
maintain the Connor name in many other states besides 
Indiana, and, through the female line as well, perpetu- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 43 

ate the spirit of unselfish patriotism and public serv- 
ice which was his. 

Terence Connor was born in 1757, in Virginia, and 
there married Sarah Speaks, the mother of his eight 
children, whose names, with their marriages, follow: 
1. Dade, married Sadie Huff. 2. Samuel, married (a) 
Elizabeth Claycomb; (b) Nancy Hyde. 3. William, 
married Elizabeth Green. 4. John, married (a) Eliza- 
beth Crist, (b) Sinclair. 5. Terence, Jr., 

married Marilla Crow. 6. Elizabeth, married Anthony 
Green. 7. Margaret, married Samuel Frisbie. 8. Jane, 
married Elijah Carr. 

Terence Connor enlisted in September, 1776, in 
Prince William County, Virginia, in the Virginia Line 
Continental Troops, under Colonel Daniel Morgan, in 
the brigade commanded by General Woodford, serv- 
ing three years and two months, or until honourably 
discharged by General Woodford, at the Bush encamp- 
ment on North River. 

Some time prior to the beginning of the nineteenth 
century he came with his family across the mountains 
into Kentucky, having received from Virginia bounty- 
lands in what was "Fincastle County" when a part of 
the mother state. 

As in the case of many other families, Kentucky was 
but a stopping place for the Connors, and in 1807 they 
settled permanently in Indiana, Samuel Connor then 
entering lands in Perry County and Terence Connor, 
Sr., taking up more, five years afterward. By Act of 
May 25, 1819, he became eligible to an annual pension 
of $96 and was placed upon the rolls September 10, 
1819, some twelve years after his earliest recorded 
residence in Perry County. 

He continued a pensioner until his death, December 
16, 1841, which occurred at Troy, although his remains 
were interred near Rome, in the "Connor Burying- 
ground," on a portion of the land he had taken up in 
1817, which estate has never passed out of the Connor 
blood, his descendants in the sixth generations now re- 



44 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

siding thereon, and the stone at his head bears the in- 
scription : 

"A Soldier of the Revolution. 
An Associate of Washington and Lafayette." 

George Ewing was born March 16, 1754, at Green- 
wich, Cumberland County, New Jersey, the great- 
grandson of Finley Ewing, of Dumbarton, Scotland, 
and County Derry, Ireland, who had been an officer 
under William of Orange at the battle of Boyne Water, 
1690. 

His military services in the American Revolution 
had their beginning November 11, 1775, when he en- 
listed in the Fifth Company, Second Battalion, First 
Establishment, New Jersey Line, Continental Troops, 
and as he kept from thence forward a diary which is 
still in possession of his descendants, the full details 
of his career are easily traced, including Montgomery's 
ill-fated expedition against Quebec ; the battles of Ger- 
mantown and the Brandywine, and the winter at Val- 
ley Forge. 

He was commissioned an Ensign, February 5, 1777, 
and August 10, 1778, married Rachel, daughter of Na- 
thaniel and Abigail (Padgett) Harris, at Greenwich. 
They removed in 1786 to Ohio County, Virginia (now 
West Virginia) and six years later into the state of 
Ohio, whence they came in May, 1818, to Indiana, tak- 
ing up land as recorded. 

He was placed on the Pension Roll, January 31, 1820, 
under Act of April 20, 1818, at $240 per annum, draw- 
ing this amount until his death, January 15, 1824 ; 
Rachel, his wife (born September 2, 1750), following 
him September 29, 1825. They were buried near the 
bank of the Ohio River, in Tobin Township, in Section 
8, Township 7 South, Range 3 West; but their head- 
stones err slightly in the dates of death and in the ages 
given, the particulars here stated having absolute au- 
thority. Their burial place having passed out of the 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 45 

family and through many changes (being now a part 
of "Sunnycrest Farm," Captain I. H. Odell's estate), 
in 1907 the remains were removed by a descendant, 
John G. Ewing, of Roselle, New Jersey, to Cliff Ceme- 
tery, Cannelton, where the ashes now repose in the 
Latimer family plot, descendants through the female 
line. 

Many other names are in the direct line of descent 
from George Ewing, Sr,, but the only Ewings of his 
blood in Perry County are those living in the vicinity 
of Magnet, the grandchildren of Lafayette Ewing, son 
of George Ewing, Jr., eldest son of George and Rachel 
(Harris) Ewing. Their second son was Thomas Ew- 
ing, one of Ohio's notable lawyers, twice a United 
States Senator from that state, and twice in the Cabi- 
net, as Secretary of the Treasury under William Henry 
Harrison, and under Taylor the first to hold the newly- 
created portfolio of Secretary of the Interior. His 
daughter, Ellen Ewing, married William Tecumseh 
Sherman, the famous general. 

Other Revolutionary veterans living in the county at 
this time, or somewhat later, will be here enumerated 
for convenience, though it is impossible to give in each 
case the authentic official particular of their service. 

Richard Avitt enlisted in the navy at Newcastle, 
Pennsylvania, serving on the ship "Alpea," under Com- 
modore Hopkins, and later on the black brig, "An- 
dariah," under Captain Courtney. Afterward he en- 
listed in the artillery, under Colonel Thomas Proctor, 
of the Pennsylvania Line Continental Troops, where 
he served three years and became a sergeant. 

As such he was placed on the pension roll Septem- 
ber 16, 1819, under Act of May 24, 1819, at the annual 
rate of $96. He drew this up to his death, June 12, 
1826, but the place of his burial can not be identified, 
though he had lived in Tobin Township at or near 
Rome, and had, on August 3, 1818, cast his ballot in 
an election held at the house of Lemuel Mallory. Prob- 



46 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

ably his remains were laid in some now forgotten fam- 
ily burying ground. 

Lemuel Mallory, who came in 1817 into Tobin Town- 
ship, had been a private in the Connecticut State 
Troops. He was born May 22, 1763, at Ripton Parish, 
Stratford, Fairfield County, Connecticut, and at the 
age of only fifteen volunteered, during the summer of 
1778, serving for eight months with Captain John 
Yates, under Colonel Heman Swift. 'In March, 1780, 
he re-enlisted under Lieutenant Pinto in General 
Stark's Brigade. 

He made application for pension May 16, 1833, un- 
der Act of March 4, 1831, and was placed on the rolls 
October 18, 1833, at an annual rate of $80. He lived 
until February 16, 1851, dying at Rome where he was 
buried in the "Shoemaker Cemetery." Although blind 
in his last years he was said to have retained his mem- 
ories of battle experiences with close accuracy. 

He was twice wedded, and descendants of his first 
marriage are yet living in Perry County, as well as 
the descendants of his brothers, Lanson and Moses 
Mallory. There were no children by his second wife 
(whom he married August 15, 1819, in Corydon), Mrs. 
Rebecca (Reagan) Lang, born November 15, 1767, in 
Frederick County, Virginia, and herself the daughter 
of a Revolutionary soldier, Michael Reagan, by his 
wife, Nancy O'Connell. 

Michael Reagan was born 1743, in Ireland, and came 
in young manhood with other North-Ireland Presby- 
terians into the northern end of the Valley of Virginia, 
where he married, his wife belonging to the same fam- 
ily as the Irish "Liberator", Daniel O'Connell. Fred- 
erick County lying close to the state line of Pennsyl- 
vania, Michael Reagan (Regan) enlisted for the war, 
September 9, 1778, in Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Mil- 
ler's company in the Second Pennsylvania Regiment, 
commanded by Colonel Walter Stewart. His name also 
further appears on the roster of the same company 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 47 

and regiment in April, 1780, Lieutenant-Colonel John 
Murray then commanding under Colonel Stewart. 

Through this record of service, on file in the Record 
and Pension Office of the War Department at Wash- 
ington (Pennsylvania Archives, 2d Series, Volume 10, 
Page 424), his descendant, Mrs. Isabelle (Huckeby) 
de la Hunt, became the first member in Perry County 
(No. 39017) of the National Society of the Daughters 
of the American Revolution. 

Michael Reagan died 1823, in Sevier County, Ten- 
nessee, where he is buried, his descendants abounding 
in the Southern Atlantic and Gulf States. A distin- 
guished representative and close relative to Rebecca 
(Reagan) Lang-Mallory, was John H. Reagan, of 
Texas, Postmaster-General of the Confederacy, after- 
ward United States Senator from Texas and the last 
survivor of the Jefl^erson Davis Cabinet. 

Lemuel Mallory's pension was continued to his 
widow from November 16, 1853, until her death, Feb- 
ruary 21, 1856, at Rome. Her first husband, John 
Lang, had been like herself, a Virginian, and they came 
with their family and household effects across the 
Blue Ridge mountains to the Monongahela River, 
thence by flatboat down that river and the Ohio to 
Jefferson County, Kentucky, where they lived for a 
time before crossing into Indiana and establishing 
themselves in Harrison County. John Lang rode away 
from Corydon in 1811 to join the forces of General 
Harrison at Vincennes, but never came back — shot 
by the Indians early one morning when on duty as 
sentinel. 

His widow continued to reside in Corydon during 
several of the years when it was the territorial and 
state capital, making her home with a married daugh- 
ter, Mrs. Samuel Littell (Rachel Lang) until remov- 
ing to Rome after her own second marriage. The elder 
Lang children, by their father's first marriage re- 
mained in Harrison County, others going on into 
Spencer County, where the name is still widely repre- 



48 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

sented in the thrifty farming country of Ohio and Luce 
Townships, besides in professional circles of Rockport. 

Jeremiah York enlisted as private in the Eighth 
Regiment Pennsylvania Continental Line, Captain 
Springer his commanding officer, and was pensioned 
August 27, 1833, at $80, under Act of March 4, 1831. 
Neither date nor place of his death could be verified, 
though the York name is still in existence near Derby. 

Thomas Green Alvey was a private in the Maryland 
Continental Troops, under Colonel Ramsey, and fought 
at the battle of Paramos. He was given a $96 annual 
pension, September 29, 1819, under Act of May 24, 
1819. Many of the Alvey family live in different parts 
of the county, but the location of his grave was no- 
where identified. 

Abraham Hiley closes the list of authenticated Revo- 
lutionary pensioners who were residents of Perry 
County, receiving an $80 annual bounty, under Act 
of March 4, 1831, from March 14, 1834, in recompense 
for his services as private in the Pennsylvania Militia. 
His grave is beside that of his wife, near Bear Creek 
in Tobin Township, on the "Hardin Grove" estate, now 
the home of Mr. and Mrs. Sydney Kepler Groves (Mil- 
dred Dessa Ramsey). His descendants remain only 
under other names through the female line. 

Jacob Weatherholt, while not a pensioner, was a To- 
bin Township pioneer whose military service is au- 
thenticated by W. T. R. Saffell's "Records of the Revo- 
lutionary War" (pp. 280-281). Born 1758 in Virginia, 
he enlisted in the Western Department, and March 1, 
1780, was honourably discharged from the Detachment 
of Colonel John Gibson, who served from January 1, 
1780, until December 6, 1781, when he surrendered his 
command to Brigadier-General William Irvine. 

Jacob Weatherholt died April 23, 1837, and was 
buried in the "Upper Cemetery" at Tobinsport, beside 
his wife, Sarah ( ) Weatherholt. Their de- 
scendants are many in both Perry and Breckinridge 
Counties, and their youngest child, Mrs. Milicent 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 49 

(Weatherholt) Pate, died in Cloverport in only 1915, 
one of the very few then living to claim the distinc- 
tion of being a "real" Daughter of the American 
Revolution. 

This same Tobinsport burying ground is one of the 
few cemeteries in Southern Indiana where two authen- 
ticated veterans of the War of Independence are buried, 
and the first interment taking place within its 
bounds was that of John Lamb in 1818. Rude stones 
which have never felt the chisel are the grave's only 
markers at head and foot, but its location has always 
been distinctively identified from the circumstance 
that it lies at a peculiar angle wholly different from 
any others in the cemetery. Steps are being taken 
(1915) to procure for it an oflScial Government head- 
stone suitably inscribed. 

John Lamb was born May 22, 1757, in Albany 
County, New York, and had not quite attained his 
twenty-first birthday when he enlisted as a private in 
Captain Barent J. Ten Eyck's Company, Second New 
York Regiment, Continental Troops. He served from 
May 5, 1778, until February 5, 1779, and we may rea- 
sonably assume that the causes then interrupting for 
awhile his military career were of a sentimental na- 
ture, since on March 21, 1779, he was married to Beu- 
lah Curtis, by whom he became the father of twelve 
children. Within the same year he re-enlisted, serving 
1779-80-81 in Yates' Regiment of the New York Mili- 
tia. In 1808 he removed from Nev/ York to Indiana, 
entering land the following year in Perry (then Knox) 
County, near Tobinsport, where he died in 1818. 

The twelve children of John and Beulah (Curtis) 
Lamb were: 1. Solomon. 2. Beulah. 3. John, Jr. 
4. Katherine. 5. Ezra. 6. Israel Thompson. 8. Bath- 
sheba. 9. John Willis. 10. William B. 11. Dorastus. 
12. Rudolphus. From these sprang such an extensive 
progeny that scarcely a pioneer family of Tobin Town- 
ship has not now some descent from or connection with 
the Lamb line. 

(4) 



50 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

In the northern portion of the county but two Revo- 
lutionary graves have been located. Thomas Rhodes 
was said to have served with the army of General 
Gates. He came into Oil Township as a homeless man, 
and was cared for by the family of James Reily, the 
pioneer, among whom he died. A plot of ground on 
his farm had been set apart and given to the public 
by James Reily as a free burying ground, but Rhodes' 
was the first and only interment ever made on the 
spot, as the cemetery was located a little later at what 
is now known as the "Walker Grave-yard." Joshua 
Deen, who married Helena, daughter of James and 
Catherine Ewing (Jamison) Reily, and purchased the 
farm from the Reily heirs, cleared the ground orig- 
inally proposed for a cemetery and cared for it as long 
as he lived there, cutting the name of Thomas Rhodes 
on a large tree at the head of the grave. He later re- 
moved to Pike County, and James Goldman is now 
(1915) owner of the property. 

The second Revolutionary grave referred to as in 
Oil Township is that of Jacob Shaver, buried in the 
Oil Creek Cemetery, about a mile northwest of Asbury 
Meeting-house. He had married Nancy Allen, an own 
cousin to General Ethan Allen, the hero of Fort Ti- 
conderoga, and their daughter Sarah was the wife of 
Jonathan D. Esarey, with whom the Shavers came into 
Perry County in the second decade of the Nineteenth 
Century. 

David Harley enlisted at Philadelphia under Cap- 
tain Shay. He was captured at Fort Washington and 
held prisoner by the British until paroled. Afterward 
re-enlisting, he saw service on Long Island. 

Silas Taylor had enlisted in Pennsylvania under 
Captain Lenox, serving at Germantown and Chestnut 
Hill, and was finally present at the Surrender of Corn- 
wallis at Yorktown, October 19, 1781. 

Benjamin Rosecrans enlisted in New York under 
Colonel Morgan, and was with him at Short Hills, Red 
Bank, Princeton, Trenton, York Island and White 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 51 

Plains. It was told of him that he claimed to have 
often seen George Washington, who spoke to him, and 
once took him by the hand. This may or may not have 
been true. 

Thomas Bolin, who had enlisted as a private in the 
North Carolina Militia (no date found), was granted 
a pension October 15, 1833, under Act of March 4, 
1831, but its rate $60 per annum, might seem to indi- 
cate his service as having been performed in the War 
of 1812, especially as his age was then given as 67, 7^*?^ 
which would place his birth in the very year of the " ^j 
Declaration of Independence. t\0 : ^ ^ ^ ^ 

Perry County's most conspicuous representative in 
the War of 1812 was Captain Samuel Connor, who 
raised a company in the county, with some reinforce- 
ments from the Kentucky side of the river opposite 
Tobin Township, the home of most of the privates. 
Captain Connor's company was mustered in for three 
months' service, in August, 1812, at Princeton, as part 
of the regiment commanded by Colonel Ephraim 
Jordan. 

They were sent to Vincennes and assigned for duty 
north of that point, although their actual service could 
not be more definitely ascertained. Squads of the com- 
pany were engaged as guards for transport wagons 
and mail carriers in their course along the banks of 
the Wabash between the post at Vincennes and Fort 
Harrison near Terre Haute. Skulking Indians, of 
course, were often seen, but it is not knov/n that any 
of the company were killed or wounded by the red- 
skins. 

Among the enlisted men are preserved the names of 
John B. Alvey, Terence Connor, Jr., Richard Deen 
(son of William and Mary (Hardin) Deen, of Oil 
Township), Thomas Drinkwater, Robert Gardner, 
Daniel Hays, Hart Humphrey, Samuel Kellums, Solo- 
mon Lamb, Edward Morgan, Robert Niles, Edmond 
Polk, Stephen Shoemaker and Joseph Tobin. Edmond 
Polk, who was a son of the Rev. Charles and Willey 



52 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

(Devers) Polke, married Mary, daughter of John and 
Rachel (Avery) Winchel, and their two children, 
Avery Polk and Miss Margaret Polk, are yet living 
(1915), a direct link with the Second War with 
England. 

In a company raised by Captain David Robb at Har- 
dinsburg, Breckinridge County, Kentucky, were sev- 
eral men probably then and certainly afterward resi- 
dents of Perry County, although accredited to Ken- 
tucky; John Crist, Alexander Cunningham, James De 
Jarnett, Philip Jenkins, John Riggs and William 
Weatherholt. The company lost several men at Tippe- 
canoe, fighting in the Kentucky regiment commanded 
by a Colonel Allen, in whose regiment was also a com- 
pany commanded by Captain Joseph Allen. It served 
three months, and among the privates mustered out 
at Shakertown were Philip Miller, Peter Miller and 
Benjamin Smith, who lived at a later date in Perry 
County. 

Thomas Royston served in the east under Captain 
Rutledge, of Maryland, enlisting at Baltimore. He 
died June 25, 1855, at Rome, aged 82, and was buried 
on the Jehu Hardy lot in the Connor Cemetery. 

Thomas Gilham was in Captain Pittman's company, 
raised at Winchester, Kentucky, for Colonel Taylor's 
regiment. William Dodd enlisted at Louisville, serv- 
ing in the "Hopkins Campaign," under Captain John 
Jones, under Colonel Wilcox. John Courcier, who is 
buried near Leopold on what is now the estate of the 
Marcilliat family, received a grant of land in that 
township of his services. His descendants under his 
own and other names reside in Perry and Spencer 
Counties, and through his approved records the line- 
age is registered in the Indiana Society United States 
Daughters of 1812. 



CHAPTER VI 

BRICK COURT HOUSE AND EARLY RESIDENTS AT ROME 

Rome's palmy days were her earliest, and the 
erection in 1820-22 of a brick court house — handsome 
for its time and built with a care shown by its yet 
excellent state of preservation — seemed to prophesy 
a career of enduring prosperity. 

In general style and dimensions the building closely 
copied other county edifices of the same period — 
square, two stories, with hip roof and central cupola; 
its architectural lines strongly suggesting Indiana's 
first state house in Corydon; or the ancient court 
house of Nelson County, Kentucky, in the public 
square of storied Bardstown, once the refuge of an 
exiled French king. 

The lapse of a century and the complete disappear- 
ance of the county records for Perry County's first 
decade, make it impossible to designate positively the 
actual pioneer residents upon the town plat of Rome 
(the former Washington). It may have been that the 
oldest volumes of all were never removed from Troy 
to Rome, since it was reported by Judge Goodlett in 
1820, after inspection, that the clerk's office had not 
been kept as the law specified after the organization 
of the county, part of the records being then at Troy 
and part at Rome. 

With such easy going methods of procedure, it is 
not a rash supposition that some of the immediately 
succeeding volumes were left behind when the county 
seat was finally re-located in 1859 at Cannelton. The 
compilers of a historical sketch published in 1885 de- 
clared that the most minute and protracted research 
failed to reveal any County Board reports of date 



54 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

prior to 1826 among the musty archives of the court- 
house then in use, and similar investigation thirty 
years afterward, in the present Court-House base- 
ment, proved equally fruitless of result. 

An approximate grouping, therefore, is all this 
chapter may claim to be, giving such names and par- 
ticulars as can certainly be mentioned of those whom 
earlier authorities definitely establish as citizens of 
Rome during its first dozen years of existence. Ter- 
ence Connor and his sons were a family of particular 
prominence; also Lemuel Mallory, George Ewing, Sol- 
omon Lamb (who as Recorder-Clerk moved with the 
county seat from Troy to Rome), and Samuel Frisbie 
(son-in-law of Terence Connor, Sr.), prosecuting at- 
torney for a long term of years, in succession to Will- 
iam Hall, besides teaching one of the earliest schools. 

John W. Ricks was for many years the leading mer- 
chant, even establishing a chain of branch stores at 
various other points in the county. He likewise owned 
a grist- and saw-mill run by the water power of Poi- 
son Creek, the stream's name having its origin from a 
spring whose water was believed to have caused the 
death of an early hunter who drank of it about the 
time of the survey in 1805. 

Ricks was an extensive pork-packer, but did no 
slaughtering himself merely buying the fresh meat 
from the farmers, among whom it became customary 
to collect their hogs into large herds which were driven 
at the beginning of winter to Rome and there slaugh- 
tered for immediate sale, packing and shipment. In 
each season Ricks usually sent South at least one 
boatload of 25,000 pounds of pork, besides oats, corn 
and produce ; also live cattle, to say nothing of blooded 
horses, though he commonly found ready sale in Ken- 
tucky for the finer strains of horseflesh. He became 
a rich man by his trading ventures, and his sons, who 
went to California during the "gold fever" added to 
the wealth they had inherited. 

Samuel Anderson was one of the first inn-keepers, 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 55 

also dispensing liquor over his bar. Two corn-mills 
and distilleries were operated in the neighbourhood, 
by Samuel Connor and Uriah Cummings, respectively. 
Everybody — men, women and children alike — in that 
early time drank whiskey whenever they could get it, 
regarding it as necessary to the system. A decanter 
stood on every sideboard and no reaping, corn-husk- 
ing, house-raising, or shooting match could be carried 
on, it was thought, without a liberal supply of liquor, 
and a change of sentiment came about only by slow 
degrees. 

George Ewing, Jr., also kept an early tavern in a 
commodious log structure of which a portion is still 
standing on the east side of the public square. He sold 
out comparatively soon, however, to Joshua Brannon 
Huckeby, a native of Bedford County, Virginia, whose 
parents — Thomas and Frances (Brannon) Huckeby — 
had come from their home near the "Peaks of Otter," 
bringing their children into Indiana in its territorial 
day, breaking their long wilderness journey as did the 
majority of Virginia emigrants by a period of resi- 
dence in Kentucky. 

Born February 13, 1802, three miles east of the Blue 
Ridge mountains, Joshua B. Huckeby was married 
April 4, 1824, in Rome, to Rebecca Lang, whose fa- 
ther, John Lang, had been killed by the Indians dur- 
ing the War of 1812. Within a few years they took 
up their abode in the log inn, where most of their chil- 
dren were born and where the leading men who came 
to Rome within the next quarter century were enter- 
tained. 

Elijah Brannon Huckeby, a younger brother, opened 
a general store and was engaged in merchandise for 
some twenty years, at times alone and again in part- 
nership. He was born May 15, 1811, and was twice 
married: in 1835 to Nancy, youngest daughter of Da- 
vid Groves, and in 1841 to Jane, daughter of Samuel 
Connor. 

Matthew E. Jackson opened a tavern in 1826, Levi 



56 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

C. Axton a grocery and tavern the same year, and in 
1827 William Hargis began selling liquor in what was 
then commonly spoken of as a "coffee-house." John 
Allen was a carpenter; Montgomery Anson (a native 
of Quebec, Canada, who had come to Perry County in 
1819) a mason; Robert Gardner, a saddler and har- 
ness-maker; Robert S. Negus, a blacksmith; Shubael 
Little, a carpenter; Lanson Mallory and Moses Mal- 
lory, mill-wrights ; Andrew Ackarman (who came to 
America from Germany in 1822), a tanner. 

Other property-owners at Rome in 1826, according 
to a list given by Goodspeed's History of Perry, Spen- 
cer and Warrick Counties in 1885, were Ira A. Blanch- 
ard, Drusilla Claycomb, George Claycomb, Nicholas 
Critchlow, Catherine Donnelly, John Green, Presley 
Hall, Isaac Hardin, Greenberry S. Holloway, John Lit- 
tle, Ezra Lamb, Israel Lamb (county agent until his 
death in 1829, when Robert Gardner succeeded him), 
Edmund Jennings, Louisa Negus, Alexander Ramsey, 
Jacob Shoemaker, John Shoemaker, Stephen Shoe- 
maker, John Stapleton, James Stith, Casper Stone- 
ments, David H. Stonements, Phoebe Van Winkle and 
Thomas Wheeler. It must be remembered that this 
list enumerates only such individuals as actually held 
lots in the town plat on record, and therefore omits 
many who were residents of the immediate vicinity. 

The site of the first school-house in Rome is impos- 
sible to locate, although a man named Corwin is said 
to have taught in 1820 in a small log dwelling on Lot 
89, on Market Street, which had been converted into 
a temporary school building. Solomon Lamb, who had 
taught in Troy, also engaged in the same after his 
removal to Rome, and Samuel Frisbie followed the 
teaching profession at irregular intervals between his 
practice of law, all the terms being arranged for by 
subscription for tuition. 

About 1819 the Methodists organized a class, its 
first meetings being held at the house of Terence Con- 
nor, Sr., who was an active member, together with his 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 57 

wife, John Claycomb and wife, John Allen and wife, 
John Jefferson Lang, the Greens, the Stapletons and 
other families. Preaching was held monthly, a large 
number of charges being embraced in what was long 
known in conference as "Rome Circuit," services con- 
tinuing at the Connor residence until the court-house 
was finished, after which it was used for public wor- 
ship and all meetings of importance, until a church 
edifice was erected some thirty years later. 

The Baptists claim to have organized, also about 
1819, some three miles west of Rome, the Rev. Charles 
Polke founding the class, as he had done that at To- 
bin's Point (Mount Gilead Church) a little earlier. 
Among the first Baptists at Rome were members of the 
Ricks, Lamb, Mallory, Hardin and other families, and 
it appears that their meetings were soon transferred 
to the court-house, in alternation with the Methodists. 

The strongest Baptist organization in Perry County 
in early years was that of Gilead. At one time nearly 
all the residents in the south end of Tobin Township 
belonged to it, while on its membership roll today still 
appear the pioneer names of Polk, Tobin, Winchel and 
others representing the fifth generation of descendants 
from the original families. 

A characteristic feature of these primitive years, 
now forever passed away, was "Training Day," and 
muster-grounds were set apart in various convenient 
clearings. One still remembered in Perry County was 
the level tract of land just west of Deer Creek, close 
to the Ohio River, for many years part of the Floyd 
Mason farm and now owned by Mrs. Robert Tobin 
Groves (Lena Roland). This was practically on the 
line between Troy and Tobin Townships and of equally 
convenient access to both. 

The old militia system of the Northwest Territory, 
which Governor Harrison found in force upon his ar- 
rival at Vincennes, was by him reorganized and re- 
mained the law for Indiana Territory from December 



58 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

13, 1799, until by the Territorial Legislature, Decem- 
ber 5, 1806, it was so amended as to render it con- 
formable to changed conditions. 

Every able-bodied citizen between the ages of 
eighteen and forty-five (except ministers of the Gospel 
and Territorial officers) was required by law to enroll 
himself with the captain of his district company, also 
to provide himself with flintlock musket, bayonet, 
knapsack, pouch, cartridges, powder and ball. A com- 
plete division into the various ranking bodies was ar- 
ranged, with full quota of officers, and semi-annual 
muster days were set for April and October, when the 
troops were supposed to be under arms for six hours, 
beginning with roll-call and inspection, with field-drill 
based upon Baron Steuben's manual of tactics. 

Fines, ranging from six dollars for a private to one 
hundred dollars for an officer, usually ensured full 
attendance, though training day was too much of a 
neighbourhood social function for any one voluntarily 
to absent himself. The entire family turned out in 
full strength, a dinner of barbecued meats being cus- 
tomarily provided, with stands for the sale of ginger- 
bread and hard cider, those delicacies of the period, 
and dancing on the hard ground was enjoyed to the 
stirring strains from pioneer fiddlers, whose music — 
however crude — was not devoid of a harmony pecu- 
liarly its own. 

With such diversions occupying the younger ele- 
ment, their elders discussed topics of common inter- 
est; county, state or national affairs, and the inevi- 
table presence of candidates, who were ubiquitous in 
a time when elections were held annually, brought 
prominently into the foreground a condition still re- 
flected whenever Hoosiers assemble. 

As the militia themselves were immune from arrest 
on the two days when called out for muster, the gen- 
eral jollification sometimes became boisterous, and the 
trials of strength begun in merriment occasionally de- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 59 

generated into rough-and-tumble fisticuff practise, not 
to say actual fights. Personal grievances or differ- 
ences of long standing were often settled on training 
day by a hand-to-hand conflict, which nobody inter- 
ferred with as long as it was fair and square, and when 
thus settled the grudge was forgotten equally by victor 
and vanquished. 

Samuel Connor, of Rome, was the highest ranking 
officer in the county, serving as General in the mili- 
tia, besides having held a Captain's commission in the 
War of 1812. Greenville Polk, of Tobinsport, was a 
Colonel, his commission reading thus : 

"Jonathan Jennings, Governor and Commander in 
Chief of the State of Indiana, to all who shall see 
these presents — Greeting : 

"Know ye, that from the special trust and confidence 
reposed in the patriotism, valour, fidelity and ability 
of Greenville Polk, I have commissioned and do com- 
mission him a Colonel in the 12th Regiment of the Mi- 
litia of the State of Indiana ; to take rank as such from 
the date thereof, and during good behaviour. He is, 
therefore, carefully and diligently to discharge the 
duties of a Colonel. And I do strictly charge and re- 
quire all oflficers and soldiers under his command to 
be obedient to his orders as Colonel. And he is to ob- 
serve and obey such orders and instructions, from 
time to time, as he shall receive from his superior offi- 
cers, according to the Rules and Discipline of War. 

"In Testimony whereof I have hereunto set my 
hand, and have caused to be affixed the seal of the 
State of Indiana, at Cory don, the 11th day of March, 
in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred 
and nineteen, the third year of the state, and of the 
Independence of the United States the forty-third. 
"Jonathan Jennings. (Signed) 
(SEAL) 

"By order of the Governor, R. S. New, Secretary." 



60 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

This yellow and time-stained original document is 
now owned by a grand-daughter of Greenville Polk, 
Mrs. James H. Payne (Addie Polk Miller) of Tobins- 
port, to whom it has descended through her mother 
Nancy (Polk) Miller. 



CHAPTER VII 

LAFAYETTE'S STEAMBOAT WRECK AT ROCK ISLAND 

A notably unique occurrence of international his- 
tory about this period, which accidentally brought into 
Perry County the most renowned personage who ever 
set foot upon her soil, was the second visit of Lafay- 
ette to America during President Monroe's second ad- 
ministration, in response to an official invitation from 
the United States, placing at his disposal a government 
frigate for his transportation to our shores. Free 
passage was eagerly proffered also by each of the dif- 
ferent packet lines crossing the Atlantic, but all such 
propositions were courteously waived. 

Gilbert Motier Marquis de Lafayette, the aristo- 
cratic advocate of pure democracy, consistently em- 
barked as a private passenger on board the vessel 
Cadmus, plying between Havre and New York, where 
he arrived Sunday, August 5, 1824, landing at Staten 
Island. The elaborate reception on the following day 
which tendered him the freedom of the city of New 
York, was but the prelude to a year of triumphant 
ovation bestowed upon a hero around whose name 
clustered the romantic tradition of half a century. Of 
him it was said : ''While Lafayette lived no one need 
mourn the age of chivalry as dead," and this sentiment 
may help us better to conceive the furore of excite- 
ment which swept over the country when Lafayette 
was actually once more in America. 

Every one of the thirteen original Colonies was vis- 
ited, and each vied with her sister States in paying 
honour to this supreme patriot, the invaluable friend 
of America, than whom none was dearer to the heart 



62 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

of Washington. While there was no lack of warmth 
or spontaneity in the tributes of New York or New 
England, it remained for the nation's first capital, 
Philadelphia, to accord him a welcome so enthusiasti- 
cally brilliant in expression that it yet stands upon 
record as the most marvellous demonstration ever 
beheld in the staid Quaker City. 

Lafayette's emotion on revisiting "Mount Vernon'^ 
was profound, and we are told upon the authority of 
John C. Calhoun (then Secretary of War) that as the 
General stood reverently uncovered before the tomb 
of Washington a magnificent eagle poised its flight in 
mid-air for several seconds directly above him. At 
"Monticello" Thomas Jefferson came forth with tot- 
tering steps to embrace with fond affection his friend 
of by-gone years, and no less cordial a reception was 
extended by James Madison at "Montpelier." 

Passing on southward through the Carolinas and 
Georgia, a spirited tribute was paid at Fort Mitchell 
in the Indian country by a number of Indians who 
took out the horses from his traveling carriage and 
drew it themselves for several miles. The vivacious 
French population of New Orleans spared nothing that 
could show honour to the illustrious dignitary who 
seemed to personify the felicitous unity between 
France and America, and a similar element attended 
the welcome of St. Louis. From Missouri to Tennessee 
was the next step in the tour planned to include each 
of the newer commonwealths added to the original 
Union, and Lafayette became at Nashville the guest 
of Andrew Jackson at "The Hermitage." 

Messengers were sent on horseback to inform the 
people in advance of his coming, Lafayette himself 
leaving Nashville, bound for Indiana and Kentucky, 
early in May, 1825, on board the steamer Mechanic, 
Captain Wyllys Hall commander, accompanied by Gov- 
ernor Carroll, of Tennessee, and a distinguished party. 
Among its members were Governor Coles, of Illinois, 
General O'Fallon and Major Nash, of St. Louis, be- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 63 

sides other gentlemen from Missouri, returning to 
their homes. 

The trip down the Cumberland was uneventful, 
along the same route taken but recently from St. Louis 
to Nashville. Turning upward into the Ohio, however, 
Lafayette was quick to perceive the rare natural beau- 
ties of its scenery, warmly commending the sentiment 
of his fellow-countrymen, the explorers who had so 
long before conferred upon the stream its title of La 
Belle Rivie7X. The mouth of the Wabash was passed 
in their journey, and a hundred miles beyond, as Perry 
County was reached, the channel grew narrower, the 
bordering hills on either side higher, the rocky cliffs 
wilder and more precipitous. 

Four or five miles above the present site of Cannel- 
ton, then virgin forest, a jagged island juts from the 
river in a bend of the channel and although now 
guarded by a warning government light is still a men- 
ace to navigation at almost all stages of water. Steam- 
boat piloting was then in its infancy, and it is not 
strange that in the darkness toward midnight of Sun- 
day, May 9, with a heavy rain falling, the Mechanic 
struck upon the outlying ledge of Rock Island, tearing 
a hole in her bow, and filled so rapidly with water that 
she went down in little more than ten minutes. 

Every one felt the shock, Lafayette being aroused 
with the others from slumber, and amid great excite- 
ment Captain Hall had the yawl made ready to con- 
vey his passengers to the shore. In the confusion pre- 
vailing, as he attempted to descend into the skiff, La- 
fayette missed his footing and was precipitated into 
the river and might have been drowned but for the 
timely assistance of one of the deckhands. Despite 
his advanced years the General had not lost the art of 
swimming acquired in his youth, so was able to keep 
his head above water until help arrived. 

All the passengers and crew were rescued, but every 
article of baggage and cargo was lost. Lafayette 
naturally suffered some inconvenience by the wreck 



64 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

and consequent loss of sundry personal belongings, in- 
cluding his carriage and eight thousand dollars in 
money; and while Captain Hall was devoting all his 
attention to safeguarding his passengers, his own desk, 
containing some thirteen hundred dollars, was lost 
overboard and never recovered. With characteristic 
philosophy, Lafayette declared himself perhaps a 
gainer through losing at the same time a vast quantity 
of unanswered letters and unacknowledged addresses. 

Here were no triumphal arches, no bands of music, 
no carefully-conned speeches, to bid the nation's guest 
welcome to Indiana. Only the simple log cabin of a 
sturdy pioneer, James Cavender, offered shelter to the 
highborn nobleman who had slept under the palace- 
roof of Versailles, yet Hoosier hospitality gave of its 
best, then as today. News of the famous visitor spread 
like wildfire through the sparsely settled region, and 
sunrise after the storm found gathering a small but 
patriotic assemblage of farmers, their wives and chil- 
dren, many of whom had traveled miles on foot, over 
night, merely to touch the hand of him who had con- 
tributed so much toward our independent existence. 

Among these was a ten-year-old lad who had 
walked with his parents from their home at Tobin's 
Point, Robert Tobin, son of Thomas and Sarah (Polk) 
Tobin. Fifty years later this boy had become a man 
of recognized mark and character in the community, 
representing Perry and Spencer Counties as joint Sen- 
ator in the Legislatures of 1875 and 1877. The power- 
ful impression made by Lafayette upon his childish 
mind, with other circumstantial details of the event, 
were cherished into old age by an accurate, retentive 
memory, and to his interesting personal recollections 
appreciative credit is here gratefully rendered, all his 
statements having been fully verified upon further re- 
search among contemporary authorities. 

Troy's oft repeated claim that the wreck occurred 
there has been traced to the incident of the Mechan- 
ic's hull having become displaced during the flood of 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 65 

1832, when it floated farther down the river, lodging 
a short distance above Troy, where it was visible for 
many years in its slow process of decay. Into this 
slight web of fact many threads of fancy were woven 
in after years by imaginative story-tellers, embellished 
by particulars wholly impossible to authenticate. 

Very near to the Cavender cabin a never-failing 
spring issues from a cleft between two towering rocks, 
shaded then by an elm tree of primeval growth which 
endured into the present century. Here the courtly 
General received his rustic visitors. The same easy 
dignity of manner which had allowed him to be called 
the most polished gentleman in France, everywhere 
won for him all hearts, so his memory is kept alive 
and his name perpetuated in more than a few Perry 
County families, some of whose members were among 
the little throng who flocked about him in the sunshine 
of that spring morning. 

The forenoon was spent in informal conversation, 
with many jests as to the discomforts of the preceding 
night, when only Lafayette and Governor Carroll had 
had the accommodation of a bed, and the boat's crew 
had of necessity camped out of doors, although this 
last was but an inconsiderable evil in the balmy May- 
time of Southern Indiana. 

Near mid-day the smoke of a descending steamer 
was descried, which upon approach proved to be the 
Paragon, bound for Memphis. Being hailed and ac- 
quainted with the circumstances of the accident, how- 
ever, the captain at once agreed to return to Louisville 
with Lafayette and his party, all of whom parted from 
their kindly entertainers with genuine regret. The 
Paragon's fuel supply was to have been replenished at 
the Troy wood-yards, so it became necessary to land 
again only a few miles above Rock Island to procure 
wood, whereupon all the citizens within call lent cheer- 
ful aid to the steamer's crew, to expedite — in ever so 
humble a way — the General's interrupted journey. 

At two o'clock the following afternoon, Wednesday, 

(5) 



66 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

May 11, 1825, the boat reached Portland (Louisville) 
where it was met at the shore by a military escort 
comprising the flower of the Corncracker State, and 
in the evening a grand ball was given to nearly four 
hundred guests. Among these not the least conspicu- 
ous was Governor James Brown Ray, of Indiana, prob- 
ably the most eccentric man ever elected to the highest 
office in the state. He was very vain, always seeking 
in both dress and manner to attract wondering atten- 
tion, fond of impressing everybody with a sense of his 
singular ability and lofty position. In public places he 
habitually registered his name "J. Brown Ray, Gov- 
ernor of Indiana" as if signing an official document, 
so it is safe to believe that when accompanied by his 
full staff at the ball in Louisville's Washington Hall, 
he was not the least spectacular feature of the oc- 
casion. 

On the next day Lafayette was taken across to Jef- 
fersonville aboard the steamer General Pike, and 
grandiloquently welcomed to Indiana by Governor Ray, 
although rain prevented his attending a large barbe- 
cue which had been arranged in his honour. With the 
further incidents of his stay in America Perry County 
had no part, and Indiana but little, save that one of her 
counties, organized 1834, the year of his death, and its 
county seat commemorate the title of his French cha- 
teau, La Grange, still occupied by his descendants, and 
a shrine much visited by Americans abroad. 

Until the floods of the eighties the little log cabin 
had bravely weathered six decades of storm and sun- 
shine, but is now only a memory, though the bubbling 
spring still pours forth its refreshing waters beside 
the winding turnpike road from Cannelton to Deer 
Creek. 

A contemporary heirloom preserved in one of Can- 
nelton's oldest homes is a quaint cream jug in "old 
blue" china, having an established catalogue value 
among collectors as the "Lafayette Pattern," and now 
used by the third generation in descent from its orig- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 67 

inal owners, Joshua B. and Rebecca (Lang) Huckeby, 
who were married at Rome in the year of its manufac- 
ture, 1824. A picture of Lafayette's vessel landing at 
Castle Garden, New York, with the Battery guns 
belching forth a fiery salute, appears on the sides of 
the pitcher, the front showing a medallion inscription. 
The ware is much sought by china connoisseurs for its 
historic design no less than its rarity, as specimens are 
now seldom seen outside of art museums or prize cabi- 
nets. 

Lafayette's love for America lasted with his life. 
Not only was his only son called George Washington, 
but Virginia and Carolina were names chosen for his 
daughters. Returning to his native land to die, it was 
yet his wish to repose in American soil, hence, at his 
request, when he bade a last farewell to these United 
States, the frigate Brandywine which bore him away 
carried also a hogshead of earth from the summit of 
Bunker Hill. It was taken from the very spot where 
General Warren fell, so the same ground which drank 
the blood of Warren surrounds today the ashes of an- 
other patriot-soldier, no less gallant, whose life was 
happily spared for a longer career of usefulness and 
bravery. 



CHAPTER VIII 
LINCOLN FAMILY IN PERRY COUNTY. 

So MUCH concerning Abraham Lincoln's boyhood 
connection with the vicinity of Troy has been told and 
published that no historian of Perry County would 
dare omit some reference thereto, yet a regard for ac- 
curacy forbids the claim of authenticity to the greater 
number of 

"these legends and traditions," 

so that only a few of the simplest facts, which have 
been indubitably verified, will here be given space. 

As all the world knows today, Abraham Lincoln was 
born February 12, 1809, in LaRue County, Kentucky, 
near the village of Hodgenville, Thomas Lincoln and 
Nancy Hanks Lincoln being his parents. While the 
Lincoln family came of worthy stock in Rockcastle 
County, Virginia, — tracing their direct descent 
through "Mordecai Lincoln, Gentleman" (whose will 
was recorded, 1735, in the Register's Office at Phila- 
delphia) to that Samuel Lincoln, of Norwich, England, 
his father, the first of the line in America — no nation's 
hero ever made his advent under more unpromising 
circumstances of adversity than Abraham Lincoln. 

Of all his biographers none can be considered to out- 
rank John Hay and James G. Nicolay, and their joint 
work speaks with an authority which can not be ques- 
tioned. In its pages we are told that "by the tirnx the 
boy Abraham had attained his seventeenth year the 
social conditions of Kentucky had changed consider- 
ably from the early pioneer days. Life had assumed 
a more settled and orderly course, the old barbarous 
equality of the earlier times was gone; a distinction 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 69 

of classes began to be seen, those who held slaves as- 
suming a distinct social superiority over those who 
did not. 

"Thomas Lincoln, concluding that Kentucky was no 
country for a poor man, determined to seek his for- 
tune in Indiana. He had heard of rich, unoccupied 
lands in Perry County in that state, and thither he de- 
termined to go. He built a rude raft, loaded it with 
his kit of tools, and four hundred gallons of whiskey, 
and trusted his fortunes to the winding water-courses. 
He met with only one accident on the way; his raft 
capsized in the Ohio River, but he fished up his tool- 
kit and most of the ardent spirits and arrived safely 
at the house of a settler named Posey, with whom he 
left his odd assortment of household goods for the wil- 
derness, while he started on foot to look for a home in 
the dense forest." 

This "settler named Posey" was, in all probability, 
the same Francis Posey listed among Perry County's 
taxpayers in 1815, living at or near Troy, then the 
only settlement along the Indiana shore of the river 
below New Albany, and the county seat as well. 

Messrs. Hay and Nicolay go on by telling us that 
"He selected a spot which pleased him in his first day's 
journey," and the vigourous frontiersman, such as 
Thomas Lincoln was, would think nothing of sixteen 
miles' walk between sunrise and sunset, that being the 
distance from Troy to the tract of land which he en- 
tered the following year. 

We are told further that "he then walked back to 
Knob Creek (Kentucky) and brought on his family to 
their new home. No humbler cavalcade ever invaded 
the Indian timber. Besides his wife and two children 
his earthly possessions were of the slightest, for the 
backs of two borrowed horses sufficed for the load. In- 
sufficient clothing and bedding, a few pans and ket- 
tles were their sole movable wealth. They relied on 
Lincoln's kit of tools for their furniture and on his 
rifle for their food. At Posey's they hired a wagon, 



70 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

and literally hewed a path through the wilderness to 
their new habitation, near Little Pigeon Creek, a mile 
and a half east of Gentryville, in a rich and fertile for- 
est country." 

While Messrs. Hay and Nicolay give no exact date 
for this removal, their general description tallies 
closely with the recorded fact that on October 15, 1817, 
Thomas Lincoln made entry of a tract of land upon 
which he had squatted a few months before, a part of 
Section 32, Township 4 South ; Range 5 West. At the 
time it was included in Hurricane Township, Perry 
County, but now belongs to Carter Township, Spencer 
County, and is embraced within the plat of Lincoln 
City, laid out in 1874, by Henry Lewis, of Cincinnati, 
at the building of the first railroad through Spencer 
County. 

Thus, while the Lincoln family became residents of 
Indiana first as citizens of Perry County, they re- 
mained such less than a twelvemonth; that is, until 
the separation of Spencer County by legislative enact- 
ment of January 20, 1818, so the further incidents of 
their sojourn in the State belong properly to historians 
of Spencer County, not Perry. 

Nancy Hanks Lincoln died, however, on October 5, 
1818, and was buried upon a spot which is now main- 
tained at state expense as a beautiful memorial park, 
along one side of which runs the Cannelton Branch of 
the Southern Railway, so Perry County has no chance 
to forget her as one of its pioneer women. 

Abraham Lincoln's tribute acknowledging his in- 
debtedness to his "angel mother" pays her appropriate 
honour, yet a word of praise, likewise, is due his step- 
mother, Sarah (Bush) Johnson, whom Thomas Lin- 
coln married within a year after being left a widower. 
She filled a mother's place to Nancy Hanks Lincoln's 
two children, generously sharing with them the addi- 
tional resources she had brought into their home from 
Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and giving them advantages 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 71 

for the scanty educational opportunities which were 
the best the neighborhood afforded. 

Thomas Lincoln appears, however, to have been of 
a roving disposition, always ready to move, and in 
1830 he disposed of his encumbered acres to Mr. Gen- 
try, sold his crop of corn and hogs, and packing his 
family with their household goods into a wagon drawn 
by two yoke of oxen, left Indiana forever, emigrating 
into the newer state of Illinois, with which the Lincoln 
name was thereafter permanently identified. 

Thirteen years of boyhood and young manhood were 
the limits of Abraham Lincoln's residence in the vicin- 
ity of Perry County, and many of the incidents related 
of him by the elder generation had a substantial basis 
of fact, sufficient for their acceptance as truth, al- 
though unrecorded by his serious biographers. Others 
were highly apochryphal, some contradictory and even 
patently impossible from the point of time. 

All describe him correctly as large and awkward in 
frame, doing the "general utility" work which fell to 
the lot of pioneer boys in his day, chopping wood, feed- 
ing cattle and hogs, and driving them to the river for 
slaughter, to be salted down and shipped South by 
flat-boat. The mouth of Anderson River was a fre- 
quent harbour for craft of this kind, and large pack- 
ing houses were conducted there by James Taylor, of 
Troy. The Lincoln family and neighbours would nat- 
urally dispose of their produce at the nearest point 
accessible, hence Abraham himself Vv^as frequently in 
the village of Troy, and even attended school there for 
a short time. 

No bridge spanned Anderson River, then officially 
classified as a 'navigable' stream, all crossing having 
to be done by skiff, and Lincoln's remarkable physical 
strength may have led him to 'hire out' for awhile as 
ferryman. Hay and Nicolay write of him that he felt 
too large for the life of a farm hand, and his thoughts 
— after the manner of restless Hoosier lads who were 
his contemporaries — turning naturally to the river as 



72 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

an avenue of escape from the forest, he asked an old 
friend to give him a recommendation to some steam- 
boat man on the Ohio. But on being reminded that 
the right to dispose of his time was yet vested in his 
father for another year or so, he conscientiously de- 
sisted from the purpose. 

The same reliable authorities tell us that in 1828 
an offer was made to him by Mr. Gentry to accompany 
the latter's son, Allen Gentry, with a flat-boat of pro- 
duce to New Orleans and return. Gladly was the op- 
portunity embraced for a glimpse of the world such 
as the long voyage afforded. This is the only river trip 
mentioned by Hay and Nicolay, and as the start was 
undoubtedly made from Troy, it was most likely in 
connection with other vessels controlled by James Tay- 
lor and Troy citizens, since the flat-boats commonly 
journeyed in fleets for mutual assistance and protec- 
tion. 

A well-written account of Lincoln's having been 
once arrested in Kentucky opposite Troy and tried 
before a Hancock County magistrate for ferrying with- 
out license, in violation of privileges held by others, 
was printe'd in 1913, with some effective illustrations 
and interesting circumstantial detail, including a 
mythical love affair with a certain damsel (a picture of 
whose grave was shown) from whom he gallantly 
withdrew as a wooer upon learning that she was the 
betrothed of another. 

Lincoln's straightforwardness in the simple plead- 
ing of his own cause was said to have obtained his 
prompt release by Esquire Pate, who gave him good 
advice toward further legal study. Altogether a ro- 
mantic narrative, and not without some ground, one 
may readily believe, although it had probably lost 
nothing in being handed down through more than 
sixty years. 

Of the love-affair, a story had been published, some 
fifteen years earlier, which bore strong points of re- 
semblance, except that the maiden's name was wholly 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 73 

different and her suitor had less faith in the sincerity 
of Lincoln's withdrawal from the field, engaging him 
in personal conflict in a corn-crib whence Lincoln 
emerged with a scar above one ear which he bore to 
his grave. 

Summing up everything, therefore, a conclusion is 
reached whose expression may be couched in phrase- 
ology borrowed from the subject himself: — in other 
words, some of the incidents related of Abraham Lin- 
coln as occurring at Troy might have been true, but 
all could not have been true. 



CHAPTER IX. 

EARLY RESIDENTS, SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES — DERBY. 

In the same year of Lafayette's visit to America a 
young man of twenty-seven or twenty-eight who came 
into Perry County bore the name John Mason, a scion 
of the distinguished Virginia family, collaterally de- 
scended from the Colonial statesman, George Mason, 
author of the famous Bill of Rights, whose estate in 
Fairfax County overlooking the Potomac, "Gunston 
Hall," was adjacent to "Mount Vernon." 

John Mason's first venture into Indiana had been 
into Pike County, but foreseeing a career of advance- 
ment for the Ohio River counties he sought a home in 
Perry County, establishing himself in Troy Township, 
Section 16, Township 6, South, Range 3, West. There, 
some two or three years later, he married Mrs. Sarah 
(Elkins) Webb, a native of Maine, the widow of Asa 
Webb. Of their seven children the eldest, William 
Floyd Mason, was the first-born child within the limits 
which afterwards became the city of Cannelton, his 
birth occurring January 21, 1830. 

A few other scattered families were neighbours, as 
country people reckon such distances, the names of 
Cavender, Hoskinson, Holman and Wentworth being 
represented, but among them John Mason's vigourous 
personality made him distinctively foremost. He was 
energetic in his farming operations and — added to a 
disposition of singular kindheartedness and benevol- 
ence — possessed keen penetration and sound fore- 
thought which made him judicious while venturesome. 

Coal as a steam-producer was brought to the notice 
of steamboat engineers by him among the first, and 
he was one of the earliest shippers introducing coal as 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 75 

a fuel in the city of New Orleans. While the commer- 
cial development of the region about his home became 
a little later the work of others, it must not be over- 
looked that his scrupulous honour in the payment of 
security debts thrown upon him had for a time severe- 
ly cramped his financial status, and a just chronicle 
may not deny the credit which others have failed to 
pay John Mason as the true pioneer in recognizing 
the vast material resources latent in the rock-ribbed 
hills of Perry County. 

That old-time conservatism yet existed in the 'twen- 
ties along the Ohio River, especially upon its southern 
bank, is quaintly attested by a grand jury indictment 
brought in 1827 for what is believed to have been the 
only genuine duel ever fought in Perry County, 
reading : 

"State of Indiana, Perry County — ss : 
In the Perry Circuit Court, in the term of September, 
in the year of Our Lord, one thousand eight hun- 
dred and twenty seven. 

The Grand Jurors empanelled and sworn to enquire 
for the State of Indiana and the body of the County of 
Perry, present that Daniel Stephens, late of Tobin 
Township in the County of Perry and State of Indiana, 
Gentleman, on the fourteenth day of August, in the 
year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
twenty-seven, with force and arms, at said township 
in said County and State aforesaid, did fight a duel 
with a rifle loaded with gunpowder and ball, with one 
Stanley Singleton, by then and there shooting and dis- 
charging said rifle, loaded as aforesaid, at said Stanley 
Singleton, contrary to the statute in such case made 
and provided, and against the peace and dignity of 
the State of Indiana. 

Charles I. Battell, Attorney, Prosecutor for 4th 
Indiana Circuit." 

A corresponding indictment was returned against 
Stanley Singleton, and the cases remained for several 
terms upon the docket before finally nollied, as the 



76 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

duellists were outside the State and, without extradi- 
tion papers, could not be haled before an Indiana court. 

Both men were Kentuckians, and Daniel Stephens, 
an extensive landowner in Breckinridge County, just 
opposite the mouth of Bear Creek, adjacent to the 
present stations of Holt and Addison on the Louis- 
ville, Henderson & St. Louis Railway. The land was 
a portion of that entered by his father. Captain Rich- 
ard Stephens, of Virginia, as a Revolutionary grant, 
and Singleton was a neighbour and personal friend. A 
violent quarrel, however, had arisen over political dif- 
ferences, so that a challenge was sent and accepted, the 
challenged party selecting the pioneer's weapon — the 
rifle — for the conflict. In order to evade Kentucky law 
the two men, in company with their seconds, and pos- 
sibly a doctor or one or two servants, crossed the river 
into Tobin Township and exchanged two shots apiece. 
Singleton escaped with only a shot through the lobe 
of his ear, but at the second discharge Stephens re- 
ceived a severe wound in the hip, from which — after 
a tedious recovery — he suffered during the remainder 
of his life. The friendship between the men was cor- 
dially resumed, just as if there had been no duel. 

One year later was held the first trial for murder, — 
the State of Indiana vs. William Rockwell for killing 
William Pitman. On May 12, 1828, the two men were 
in a skiff on the river and became involved in an alter- 
cation, during which Rothwell struck Pitman on the 
back of the head with an iron implement called a 
'sheep's foot,' (a metal bar formed into a hammer head 
at one end and a claw at the other,) fracturing his 
skull and causing his death after a few days. 

An indictment was found against Rothwell, followed 
by his arrest and trial at the September term. Samuel 
Frisbie was attorney for his defense, with Charles I. 
Battell as prosecutor, and Aaron Cunningham fore- 
man of the jury. 'Guilty,' was the verdict returned, 
whereupon defendant's attorney filed a plea for a new 
trial on the ground of no jurisdiction, which was 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 77 

allowed by Judge Goodlett, it being construed at that 
time that Kentucky alone had jurisdiction over crimes 
committed on the Ohio River along Indiana borders. 
The prisoner was therefore delivered to the authorities 
of Breckinridge County, but on the eve of his trial at 
Hardinsburg a change of venue was taken to the 
county of Hancock, just organized, and Roth well suc- 
ceeded in escaping from the primitive Hawesville jail 
and was never recaptured. 

Samuel Frisbie was appointed Probate Judge in 
1829, holding the office until elected senator the follow- 
ing year when James Reily became his successor, 
Stephen Shoemaker following Robert Gardner as 
County Agent, also in 1830. In September, 1831, the 
county business was placed in the hands of three com- 
missioners, John Bristow, Hart Humphrey and Saf- 
ford Haskell. They divided the county into forty-one 
road districts, naming the hands of each, or such able- 
bodied citizens as were required to give two days' 
manual labour oin the roads. For example: John 
Frakes was appointed supervisor of the Vincennes 
Road, "from Oil Creek to Smith's Sugar Camp," with 
Thomas Sprinkle, Abishai Dodson, Samuel Ewing and 
Graham Ewing as his assistants. 

Much gerrymandering of road districts appears to 
have been indulged in, and an idea of road surveying 
at that period may be gleaned from a description 
placed on record in 1828 by Samuel Connor and 
Thomas Wheeler, who had been appointed 'to view a 
road from Tobin's Ferry to Rome.' It reads : 

"Proceeding up the Ohio River until coming to the 
upper line of the widow Rebecca Weatherholt's Plan- 
tation ; — thence leaving the bank of the river, on the 
line of said plantation until crossing the principal 
slash; — from there bearing to the right on a small 
ridge as marked, until Abraham Finch's corner; — 
thence following the old Rome road to a blazed way 
formerly agreed on by George Tobin and Charley Polke 
until it intersects the Rome road; — thence following 



78 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

the Rome road as formerly opened to the blazes form- 
erly made by Richard Polke and brothers; — and fol- 
lowing said blazes with some alterations made by them 
to Buck's Run ; — thence up said run 59 or 80 yards to 
a log across the run where the marking again com- 
mences; crossing the run and proceeding near the 
corner of Henry Miller's oat-field; — where following 
said blazes to the Troy road to Rome." 

The taxes for 1830 were fixed at a session of the 
board as 'the same as last year except horses 50 cents 
each and oxen 25 cents,' a reduction, as shown by the 
1829 levy, quoted in full, and reading: 

"First rate land, 871/2 cents per acre 
Second rate land, 75 cents per acre 
Third rate land, 62 V2 cents per acre 

Horses and mules $ .5614 each 

Oxen -311/4 each 

Gold watches 1.00 each 

Silver or pinchbeck watches .3114 each 
Town lots 1.00 each 

Ferry licenses were variously rated: Samuel Con- 
nor's, $9. James McDaniels', $4. Edmond Jennings', 
$4. James Tobin's, $3. Peter Barber's, $1. All store- 
boats were taxed at one dollar per month and no 
license was to be issued for less than one month. Resi- 
dent merchants were also taxed, it appears, as Uriah 
Cummings paid $10 for the privilege of keeping store 
one year. 

For a short period about this time the southern ex- 
tremity of Tobin Township, or such portion of it as 
coincided with Congressional Township 7, South, ex- 
isted under the name of Athens Township. Whether 
such title was bestowed as a further tribute to the an- 
cient classics already twice honoured in the county, or 
because the residents considered themselves as veritable 
Athenians in culture and the desire for "some new 
thing," the present generation can never hope to know. 

At the March, 1832, term of court three new attor- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 79 

neys were admitted, Lyman Leslie, Eben D. Edson 
(afterward prosecutor, in 1835,) and George Burton 
Thompson, a member of that Kentucky family to which 
Congressman Phil Thompson, of the Harrodsburg dis- 
trict, belonged. George B. Thompson was elected joint- 
senator in 1833, and representative in 1845, 

It is said that Rome was first incorporated by a spe- 
cial act of the Legislature which Doctor Thompson's 
efforts carried through while in the upper house, and 
a curious recognition of the equal franchise issue oc- 
curred in the provisions of the bill, which extended the 
suffrage privilege within the corporate limits to women 
who were property owners. Goodspeed's History of 
Perry, Spencer and Warrick Counties (1885) asserts 
that this was done in order to secure as heavy a vote as 
possible against the granting of liquor licenses, but 
when the test came, the result was not what the tem- 
perance advocates had reckoned upon, and the town 
corporation lapsed after but a few years of existence. 
Three changes on the judicial bench occurred dur- 
ing the decade of the 'thirties. Judge Goodlett after 
serving twelve years being followed by Samuel Hall 
who, at the September term, 1832, presented a com- 
mission signed by Noah Noble, Governor. His sound 
interpretation of the law is attested by the fact that 
very few of his decisions in the Fourth Circuit were 
reversed by the Supreme Court. He was accurate, de- 
liberate and dispassionate ; popular with his court as a 
good reader of human nature. 

Charles I. Battell succeeded him in 1835, filling the 
position only one year. Possessing more grace in ora- 
tory than Judge Hall, he was yet unequal to him in hard 
common sense. Plodding studiously through ancient 
authorities had no attraction for Judge Battell, who 
aptly acquired legal lore through practice. He was a 
better attorney than judge, and still more a pleader 
rather than counsellor. 

Elisha Embree, of Evansville, appointed in April, 
1836, to the judgeship which he held for ten years, was 



80 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

the superior of either Hall or Battell, and a man above 
the average in all branches of his profession. He is 
described as reliable, skillful, adroit, fluent, and not 
easily confused by any depth of conflicting testimony 
or argument; qualifications which made him later a 
valuable public servant in the higher position he was 
called to occupy, Representative for the First Con- 
gressional District. 

Most of the development of Perry County thus far 
traced has been of occurrences immediately adjacent 
to the Ohio River, but it must not be assumed thereby 
that the northeastern region was without settlers, or 
that a more detailed individual mention of them has 
been intentionally omitted. 

Into the extreme northern end of Tobin Township 
had come Thomas Cummings from Virginia as early as 
1807, and inside the next three years he was followed 
by his son, Uriah Cummings who, on his way to In- 
diana, had married in Kentucky, Sarah Lanman, like 
himself a native of the Old Dominion. They located 
upon land which the father had entered, and became 
the parents of four sons and seven daughters, so that 
their descendants are numerous and found in other 
townships as well as on the original homestead, the 
name of Uriah having been handed down through each 
generation to the present. 

From 1815 to 1829 Uriah Cummings I operated a 
saw- and grist-mill on Poison Creek, afterward con- 
ducting a store in a building on his farm until he died, 
July 30, 1831. His donation, in 1816, of forty acres, 
had secured the location of the court house at Rome, 
but the condition attaching thereto, (providing for 
reversion to his heirs in case Rome ceased to be the 
county seat,) was disregarded when the county offices 
were moved, in 1859, to Cannelton, and through some 
technicality the claim of the Cummings heirs to the 
property was defeated. 

Another early mill was run by the natural water- 
power of Poison Creek at a point some three miles 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 81 

from the river, above the old State Road. While its 
date of origin could not be definitely ascertained, it was 
known as the Waterbury Mill prior to 1850, and the 
locality was of sufficient importance to be indicated as 
''Waterbury" upon a state map in Colton's Atlas of that 
period. Samuel Burton was one of its proprietors, and 
the families of Anson, Bryant, Carr and Glenn v/ere 
among those who lived near. 

John Hargis, who had come from Kentucky with 
his wife, Nancy Allen, among the pioneers, was un- 
fortunate in losing the land he had entered in Section 
13, owing to an accidentally erroneous description of 
its location, only discovered and taken advantage of by 
other parties after he had made considerable improve- 
ment of the property. 

He bought other land near by and for several years 
operated a large horse-mill, the power whereof was con- 
ducted by a band of raw bull's-hide, with the hair still 
on, cut out in a circle beginning at the centre of the 
hide. This business was so profitably managed that he 
was the owner of a half-section (320 acres) of land 
at his death, October 17, 1838. His widow survived 
him forty years, dying at an advanced age in June, 
1878. Their descendants through twelve children are 
of great number, scattered through many states, be- 
sides represented in the old neighbourhood and con- 
nected by marriage with numerous Perry County 
families. 

William Mitchell founded the third town in Perry 
County, on Section 33, Township 5, South, Range 2, 
West, w|hich he had taken up in 1818, after coming 
from Virginia through Kentucky, with his wife, Mary 
Bruner, and their several children. On November 4, 
1835, John Cassidy, then conducting a store at the 
mouth of Oil Creek (but who had been County Survey- 
or in 1819) laid out for William Mitchell a town-site 
comprising 21 lots 90 by 60 feet in dimensions, with a 
50-foot street (Water Street) along the river front, 
and Second Street, parallel therewith, 33 feet wide, one 

(0) 



82 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

square back. These were intersected at right angles by 
three alleys, 16 1/2 feet in width. 

Of this plat, however, the encroaching river has de- 
voured so much that one can scarcely recognize today 
the original plan as recorded December 4, 1835, on Page 
18, of Deed Book B, by Samuel Frisbie, Recorder, per 
Joshua B. Huckeby, deputy. It has always been toiv. 
that Samuel Frisbie was the town's sponsor, choosing 
its name to honour the Old World home of his ancestors. 

Almost directly after the first house was built in 
Derby, William Mitchell erected a distillery on (and 
partially in) the hillside. When in operation its daily 
output was between twenty and thirty gallons of 
whiskey and brandy, for which a ready local market 
was found at a price far from prohibitive, twelve-and- 
a-half cents, or "a bit," per gallon. 

After some twelve years the building was turned 
into the first chair-factory in Perry County and used as 
such for several years by Jesse Inman. He employed 
three or four other men, each of whom turned out a 
dozen chairs as a daily average, the work being per- 
formed entirely by hand. 

School in the vicinity was first taught in a private 
house by John Stephens, shortly followed by the erec- 
tion of a small log school house in a neighbourhood, in 
which Jesse Inman taught several terms. It was very 
inconveniently located for the majority of those who 
should have been its patrons, the notion seeming to 
have long prevailed among the pioneers that a school 
house should be situated outside the villages and in the 
woods remote from any public highway whose passing 
trafl[ic might possibly disturb the pupils. This idea is 
borne out by the location of many other early school 
houses in the county, and, also, obtained to some extent 
in fixing sites for certain of the churches. 

There was no early church in Derby itself, the near- 
est being some few miles south on the Rome road. 
Union Universalist Church, built in 1835-36. This con- 
gregation was founded by the Rev. E. B. Mann, its first 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 83 

pastor, and during early years ranked as one of the 
strongest organizations of that belief in Indiana, many 
of its membership — which is stated to have included 
representatives of the Connor, Cummings, Ewing, 
Groves, Humphrey, Hyde, Simons and Tate families — 
coming some distance from other parts of the county 
to attend service, or 'preaching' as the term v^as then 
in vogue. During the 'forties, Roman Catholic mis- 
sionary w^ork was begun by the Rev. Augustus Besso- 
nies, who organized St. Mary's congregation and built 
the church which still stands as the only religious edi- 
fice in Derby. 

Oil Township's first teacher is said to have been 
James Reily, a man of exceptionally good education for 
his time, who had located there in 1817, but it is not 
definitely known just where he taught, nor v/here the 
first religious worship was conducted. Probably both 
were held in private homes. Reily also taught a night 
session, known as a 'grammar school,' at which many 
adult pupils attended. Among his patrons of different 
ages were members of the Deen, Esarey, Ewing, Falk- 
enborough, Frakes, Walker and Willett families. 

Robert Walker and Delilah (Phillips) Walker were 
notably active pioneer Methodists, and a prominent cir- 
cuit-rider of the period was the Rev. John Hughes, who 
had fought gallantly in the Indian wars, and later 
served his widespread flock as a pious shepherd until 
seventy-five years of age. Walls and Seaton were the 
names of other early preachers of the Gospel. 

The Ewings (John and Eleanor) and the Jamisons 
(Samuel and Catherine) were of the old-school Pres- 
byterian belief, but no preacher or church organization 
of that faith can be noted until about 1838. At a date 
which some give as 1817 a combined school house and 
church edifice, 20 by 24 feet in size, was built of logs, 
half a mile east of where Branchville now stands, and 
in it — the earliest of its kind recorded in Oil Township 
— societies were organized by the Presbyterians, 
Methodists and Baptists. 



84 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Irregular meetings were held in the late 'thirties 
among the numerous German families who had come 
into the central portion of Tobin Township, and the 
name "German Ridge" came to designate the hill-dis- 
trict in which they formed a colony. Its postoffice is 
now 'German,' the termination 'Ridge' having been 
dropped by the government at a time when all such 
names were abridged by the Postal Department. 

Preaching in their own language was naturally 
wished by the pious farmers from Prussia, Wurttem- 
burg and the Rhenish provinces, so about 1838 a Ger- 
man Methodist class was regularly organized, the lead- 
ing families being those of Mueller, Plock, Klein, Wer- 
ner, Schank and Ackarman. For its first years the 
class was in a wide circuit served semi-occasionally 
from Boonville, but was later a part of the "Hunting- 
burg Mission," which comprised, besides work in Du- 
bois County, the field of Perry County also, including 
the German Methodists on the Ridge, at Oil Creek and 
— somewhat later — at Cannelton. 

Their first pastor was the Rev. Conrad Muth, and 
under his charge a log cabin was built, about three 
miles from Rome, on a hill above Bear Creek, and 
giving a glimpse of the distant Ohio River. This church 
was followed about 1873 by a frame building in use 
by the congregation. 



CHAPTER X. 

MINING DEVELOPMENTS OF COAL HAVEN AND CANNELTON 

As MANY of the pioneer settlers came into Indiana 
through Kentucky, so may an interesting parallel be 
drawn in observing that the earliest awakening to the 
real possibilities of the site which is now Cannelton 
came through Hav/esville, on the opposite side of the 
river; although coal mining on a small scale had been 
conducted among the hills of Troy Township by John 
Mason for several years before his efforts brought it 
to the serious notice of outside capitalists as affording 
favourable opportunities for profitable investment. 

Somie time during the summer of 1835, General Setii 
Hunt, of Walpole, New Hampshire, a wealthy Eastern 
gentleman, who was passing up the Ohio River, ob- 
served while landing at Hawesville a heap of bitumin- 
ous coal which, he learned upon enquiry, had been 
mined in Hancock County, near that village. With 
characteristic Yankee energy he delayed his journey 
long enough to lease from Mrs. Rebecca (Sterett) 
Lander a tract of land on the ancestral estate inherited 
from her father, the late Captain John Sterett, then 
proceeded home, where he immediately interested other 
New England men of means in the natural but un- 
developed resources of a region which he regarded as 
most promising. 

Samuel J. Gardner, of Roxbury, Massachusetts, and 
James T. Hobart, of Boston, joined him in raising some 
$10,000, with which he returned to the Middle West, 
purchased from Mr. Cooper a tract of coal land also 
near Hav/esville, contracted for other lands at a price 
of about $50,000, to be paid for within a few months, 



86 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

employed hands and began mining. He sent to New 
Orleans many flatboat loads of coal, many of which 
encountered the misfortune of sinking on the way. 
Other cargoes, while sold at high prices, were never 
realized upon, General Hunt's agents decamping with 
the proceeds. The building of a saw-mill, at a cost of 
$10,000 proved a partial loss, and the purchase of a 
small steamboat was no more of a pecuniary success. 
The vessel met with countless mishaps, at length run- 
ning aground upon a sandbar where it remained all 
summer, or until, in a fit of temper tried beyond en- 
durance. General Hunt tore the boat to pieces as the 
ultimate cause of his financial disaster. 

James T. Hobart had come in the meantime to this 
region, and after a thorough inspection, concluded that 
facilities for the production of coal were better on the 
Indiana side, so commenced preparations for work in 
Perry County. In the name of Gardner and Hobart, on 
October 30, 1836, he bought from Alney McLean and 
Tabitha McLean, his wife, three hundred and forty 
acres, lying in Sections 15 and 16, Township 7, South, 
Range 3, West, for $600. Part of the tract is within 
the present city limits of Cannelton, the corporation 
line following for some distance the north and south 
line between the two sections described. 

During the next twelve months he appears to have 
procured the backing of additional Eastern capital, as, 
by an Act of the General Assembly of Indiana, on De- 
cember 23, 1837, the American Cannel Coal Company 
came into existence, with a capital stock of $300,000, 
with liberty to increase the same to $500,000, should 
the company's business require it. James T. Hobart, 
Seth Hunt, Elijah Livermore, J. B. Russell, John D. 
W. Williams and their associates, successors and as- 
signs, were named as incorporators, the object of the 
company being set forth as : "to mine stone coal at Coal 
Haven, Perry County, Indiana, and elsewhere ; to mine 
iron and other minerals; to manufacture iron, cop- 
peras and lumber ; to build steam- and flat-boats for the 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 87 

transportation of coal, iron, lumber and other pro- 
ducts ; and to build mills, furnaces, forges, etc." 

In 1837 the company purchased from Gardner and 
Hobart, John D. W. Williams, Nicholas Hawley and 
others, 3,740 acres ; from James Cavender, early in the 
next year, 330 acres ; afterward 320 acres from Elijah 
Livermore ; and later 930 acres from other parties. By 
additional smaller purchases from time to time, the 
grand total amounted to 6,456 acres. In lapse of years, 
much of this naturally changed hands, (the company 
in every instance of sale retaining full mineral rights, 
with privilege of approach,) so that their acreage is 
now but a fraction of what it once was. 

General Hunt, in 1839, exchanged his holdings in the 
company for the exclusive right to work the copperas 
interest of the mines, entering energetically into the 
new venture with all his remaining means. He erected 
costly apparatus on the hillside, near the head of the 
stream which for many years flowed down Washing- 
ton Street in Cannelton, sending to New York for a 
cement that was warranted to resist the action of 
copperas water. It took him about a year to complete 
his copperas factory, and meanwhile he perfected ar- 
rangements to manufacture quercitron bark from the 
chestnut oak, of which he made a small quantity. At 
the first trial his guaranteed cement utterly refused 
to perform its promises, other important details were 
a complete failure, and General Hunt, reduced to his 
last dollar and much broken in zeal, went back East to 
return no more. In 1846 he was found dead in his 
chair at Walpole, leaving to his heirs only the exclusive 
right to manufacture copperas at Cannelton, a privilege 
still vested but never claimed. 

Extensive operations were planned by the general 
agent, James T. Hobart, who began by laying off and 
fencing small tracts of arable land on which were 
erected rude log houses to be rented by miners, lumber- 
men and labourers, so that within a few months the 
population of Coal Haven comprised a dozen families. 



88 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Several mines were opened, the principal one being in 
the hill to the rear of where now stands the parochial 
school house built in 1915 for the Benedictine Sisters 
connected with St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church. 

From this a tram-way, designed by John Mason, led 
in a westerly direction to the river bank at a point now 
occupied by the Southern Railway station, and along 
its rails the coal was conveyed in crude cars, or carts, 
to a tip from which it was dumped upon a large float- 
ing platform. Here a large painted sign called atten- 
tion of passing steamboats to the new fuel, lauding its 
cheapness and extolling its merits as a steam producer. 
The first quantities taken on trial were small, and in- 
creased but slowly, though steadily ; yet for some years 
the sale of wood was also maintained, being kept cut 
and corded on the shore, as most of the boats still used 
it. Near the head of what is now Taylor Street, be- 
sides near Sulphur Spring, other mines were opened, 
from which coal was hauled in wagons to the wharf. 

Two saw-mills were started ; one below the coal-slide, 
the other above, nearer the north bank of Casselberry 
Creek, at a point now the corner of Taylor Street and 
occupied by a tennis-court of velvet turf in the private 
grounds of E. Curtis Clark. A brick yard was also 
started by the company, but was shortly abandoned, a 
small grist-mill proving more successful. 

Late in 1838 a large frame hotel was erected and 
leased to John Wentworth, the earliest boniface of the 
settlement, though his career as such was brief. Some 
time during the autumn of 1839 a fire broke out, against 
which there was no protection, so that hotel, stores, 
mills and residences were practically all swept away. 
Only the copperas factory which General Hunt had just 
deserted, escaped, its buildings, vats, troughs, etc., re- 
maining until blown down by a high wind at a date 
some twelve years afterward. 

General Hunt's departure was so quickly followed 
by the fire and the exodus of workmen whom it ren- 
dered homeless, that Coal Haven's annihilation seemed 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 89 

certain. The financial losses of the company had 
crippled their enthusiasm, and the spring of 1840 found 
weeds starting a rank growth in the deserted village. 
But four families continued to reside in its vicinity, — 
John Mason, James Cavender, James Hoskinson, John 
Wentworth, — and of these the first three had been resi- 
dents prior to the company. 

To the Hon. Francis Yates Carlile, of New Orleans, 
who arrived during the early summer of 1840, is due 
the renascence of Coal Haven, and his descendants 
may justly claim for him the distinction of having been 
the real founder of Cannelton, since his was the execu- 
tive ability which placed upon an ultimately permanent 
basis the community which today exists as an enduring 
monument to his energy. 

He was born about 1812 in Providence, Rhode Island, 
the son of William and Sarah (Yates) Carlile, both 
of whom died in his infancy, so he was reared by his 
maternal grandfather. Esquire Yates, of Salem, Massa- 
chusetts, who gave him the advantage of an education 
at Harvard. His great-grandfather, Thomas Carlile, 
had come from Scotland in the Eighteenth Century, 
and was a sterling patriot, appointed in 1777 as Cap- 
tain of an Artillery Company in Providence, and re- 
appointed in 1780. 

After entering upon mining operations in Indiana 
Francis Y. Carlile habitually spent his winters in New 
Orleans, engaged in real estate, forwarding and com- 
mission business, meanwhile doing much in the field of 
journalism, a profession which he later followed, after 
leaving Cannelton, for several years in Evansville and 
Memphis, where he died February 16, 1866. 

For thirty-five years he was survived by his widow, 
to whom he had been married, September, 1851, in 
New Orleans, Anna Louise Howard, of Matagorda, 
Texas, a daughter of Charles and Anna Walden 
(Blount) Howard, formerly of Portsmouth, New 
Hampshire. Mrs. Howard was the granddaughter of 
Jacob Walden, who was on board the Ranger with 



90 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

John Paul Jones and was by his side during his battle 
with the Drake. He also piloted Washington's army 
across the Delaware, and in Trumbull's celebrated 
painting "Washington Crossing the Delaware," Jacob 
Walden's is the figure next to that of Washington. 

A gifted woman, intellectually her husband's peer, 
coming as a bride to join him in establishing their resi- 
dence beside the Ohio River at the edge of the village 
he had created, Mrs. Carlile made "Elm Park" the 
earliest notably individual home in Cannelton. Three 
children were born to them — Francis Howard, Grace 
Lee (Mrs. Bolton-Smith) and Nathaniel Endicott, the 
two elder surviving as residents of Memphis. 

An old print of the estate shows the mansion to 
have combined the characteristic Southern feature of 
a wide gallery surrounding the lower floor with many 
gables in the upper story, while the carriage-drive and 
ornamental planting bespeak a studied attention to 
landscape gardening, then everywhere in its infancy, 
though with the famous Downing as its American 
foster-father. 

Some few of the old cedars outlived the dwelling 
itself, which was destroyed by fire during the 'seven- 
ties, after passing through several changes of owner- 
ship. A singular fatality has seemed thenceforward 
to overhang the place, three other houses on the site 
having been burned in succession, so the spot is now 
untenanted, its gardens a mere field, though a part of 
its osage orange hedge has grown to tree-like propor- 
tions. 

February 27, 1841, Joseph B. Ball, then county sur- 
veyor by appointment, laid out a new town plat by 
order of the American Cannel Coal Company, 266 lots 
in all, comprising the central portion of the present 
city of Cannelton, in which have since been made only 
a few changes, such as widening the 16-foot alleys to 
20 feet. It was thought that a new title might dispel the 
ill-luck of early Coal Haven, so from among Cannels- 
burg, Cannelton, Hobartsville, Huntsville and others 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 91 

suggested, the choice fell upon the first name, although 
Mr. Carlile's preference was for Cannelton and its use 
soon became general, so when a second survey was 
made, in 1844, on a larger scale, the name officially 
adopted was "Cannelton." This plat was recorded by 
Frederick Connor, of Troy, a grandson of Terence 
Connor, of Rome, and a cousin of Elias Rector, the 
pioneer surveyor under whom he had served the ap- 
prenticeship of his profession. 

In 1843 James Boyd, a Scotch-Irishman of Boston, 
who had just become a stockholder in the company, 
erected a large store building on the river-front close 
to the north bank of Casselberry Creek, and somewhat 
later built his residence in the block below, between 
Taylor and Washington Streets ; a long, low structure 
which stood until the early 'seventies, shaded by a pic- 
turesque weeping willow tree harmonizing with its 
cottage type of architecture. This house is shown in a 
lithographic view of Cannelton, of which only one copy 
is known to exist, reproduced from a pencil drawing 
made about 1850-52, from the cliff back of Hawesville 
by a Louisville artist whose name is not preserved, al- 
though Captain Joseph W. Carlton, of Hawesville, who 
was a lad with him when he made the sketch, recalled 
the circumstance with perfect distinctness sixty years 
later. 

The burning of Boyd's store by incendiarism led to 
an indictment for arson against William Ritchey, who 
was brought for trial before Judge Embree in Rome at 
the May term of court, 1844, James Lockhart as prose- 
cutor represented the state, Samuel Ingle, of Evans- 
ville, appearing for the defendant, who received a two- 
year sentence upon conviction. An appeal to the Su- 
preme Court was taken by Ingle, on the ground that no 
value of the store burned had been alleged in the 
declaration. A reversal of decision was handed down, 
followed by a re-indictment and a second trial which 
resulted in Ritchey's acquittal. 

Close to the former site, or at the south-east corner 



92 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

of Taylor and Front Streets, another store v/as erected, 
of such durable material as to be practically fire-proof, 
its massive rock walls and slate roof — with the inscrip- 
tion "Built by James Boyd, 1844" deeply carved into 
the stone lintel of the central doorway — remaining a 
landmark along the river-front for three-score years, or 
long after its disuse as a business house. In 1904 the 
Cannelton Flouring Mills put up their modern four- 
story manufacturing edifice on the Boyd corner and a 
portion of the original stonework is now comprised in 
the walls of their boiler room. 

It is told that early religious worship was held in 
the Boyd building by the Methodist class which the 
Rev. Othniel A. Barnett had organized about 1838, with 
some twelve or fifteen members, among whom were 
William Knights and Lydia (Webb) Knights, Thomas 
Bristow and his sister-in-law, "Aunt Barbara" (Bloch- 
er) Mason, (whose first husband had been a Bristow,) 
long remembered as a most vigourous class-leader ; and 
Israel Lake and wife, at whose home in the river road 
the first services were conducted, before the log school 
house was used for meetings. 

This school house stood near the first cemetery, close 
to the banks of Casselberry Creek as its course then 
ran, a few graves still remaining in the long neglected 
burying ground. The selection of such locality was 
decided, beyond question, by the fact that it was in 
fractional Section 16, which the law then arbitrarily 
set aside for school purposes, without the slightest 
regard for practical considerations of convenience. No 
names of the pioneer teachers have been preserved, and 
the schools had so little patronage from the miners as 
scarcely to deserve the title. James Boyd, by his per- 
sonal effort and influence, did more than any other to- 
ward introducing Massachusetts ideals of education 
into early Cannelton, and through him a small frame 
structure was soon built on the school lot. The land 
later became the property of James Hoskinson when 
the school was removed elsewhere in town, and is now 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 93 

a part of Mr. and Mrs. George Kendley's (Lucetta 
Johnson) poultry farm. 

An addition to the original Cannelsburg plat was laid 
out for Francis Y. Carlile to the south of Casselberry 
Creek, and touching the nickname "St. Louis," by 
which it has always been locally known, a story was 
long related which is here given for what it may be 
worth. 

When the first large hotel built by the Coal Company 
was burned down in 1839, its lessee and landlord, John 
Wentworth, thrown out of business by the fire, an- 
nounced his intention of moving to St. Louis, Missouri. 
He made full arrangements, but changed his mind on 
the eve of departure and merely went to the other side 
of Casselberry Creek. Much raillery, both good- 
natured as well as sarcastic, was indulged in at his 
expense by the few citizens, who dubbed his new loca- 
tion 'St. Louis,' a name still clinging to Cannelton's first 
ward and to an election precinct through which runs 
the turnpike officially designated St. Louis Avenue upon 
entering the southern limits of the city corporation. 



CHAPTER XL 

ORIGINAL SCHOOL LAWS AND SYSTEM. 

The same Act of Congress, approved April 19, 1816, 
which enabled the people of Indiana Territory to form 
a state government originated the Congressional 
Tov/nship system, whereby Section 16 in every six-mile 
square, numbered boustrephedon, should be granted to 
the inhabitants for the use and benefit of public schools. 
Of these, Perry County contains eleven, counting a 
fractional section included in the south-eastern part of 
Cannelton's corporate limits. 

Maintenance of schools was in a measure provided 
for by the first State Constitution, in its declaration 
that all fines assessed for any breach of penal laws, and 
all monies paid as an equivalent by persons exempt 
from military duty, (except in time of war,) should 
be applied to the support of County Seminaries in 
each county where they were assessed. Such money 
Was to be held in trust by a Seminary Trustee ; at first 
appointed by the Governor, afterward by the Board of 
County Commissioners, and later chosen by the people 
at a general election. 

Soon after organization of the state government the 
Legislature provided for the appointment in each 
township of a Superintendent of School Lands, who had 
power to lease the lands for a term of years, applying 
the rents and profits to the support of schools. The 
first effective law, however, looking toward establish- 
ing a vigourous system of common schools was con- 
tained in the Revised Statutes of 1824, under "An Act 
to Incorporate Congressional Townships, and Provid- 
ing for Public Schools therein." 

The inhabitants of each (Congressional) township 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 95 

were authorized to elect three school trustees, having" 
control of the lands and schools generally, with power 
to divide their townships into districts and appoint 
sub-trustees therefor, school houses were to be built by 
the labour of all able-bodied male persons of the age 
of twenty-one years or more, residing in the district, 
with penalty of 371/2 cents for each day of failure to 
work. The houses must be eight feet between floors, 
at least one foot from the surface of the ground to 
the first floor, and finished in a manner calculated to 
render both teacher and scholars comfortable. The 
Trustees also formed a board who examined teachers 
in regard to their ability to teach the 'three R's,' read- 
ing, writing and arithmetic. 

Thus was the humble beginning of Indiana's present 
magnificent school system. Undeniably excellent in 
plan, its practical workings went on slowly, for the 
reason that no schools were to be established in any 
district until the wish of its inhabitants to that effect 
had been declared by ballot, while a want of sufficient 
public funds was a further hindrance. Only the bare 
necessities of life could be met by the teacher's 'wages,' 
which no one at that time dignified by the word 'salary.* 
Terms were seldom more than three months in dura- 
tion, and rate-bills were levied upon the pupils to satis- 
fy deficiencies. 

Without drawing upon the pages of Edward Eggle- 
ston, or other masters of descriptive fiction, for vivid 
word-pictures of pioneer schools, some passing notice 
is due their customs. It is related that there was no 
regular time for opening in the morning, but whenever 
a pupil arrived he was compelled to take his seat and 
commence the study of his task. One fixed rule, of 
lingering survival, which thwarted all attempted class- 
ification, was that whoever reached school first in the 
morning should recite first during the day. 

Sessions were much longer than now; even said by 
some to have lasted 'from sun-up till sun-down,' prob- 
ably an exaggeration, as there was no recess except 



96 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

at the mid-day play time. This period was customarily 
devoted by the teacher to making or mending the goose- 
quill pens with which his big 'round-hand' copies were 
painfully followed. Pupils were not required to pre- 
pare their lessons quietly, but each studied aloud — 
Oriental fashion — in whatever tone of voice best suited 
him. As recitations were heard one at a time, it is 
difficult to imagine how reading or spelling lessons 
could be conducted without a premium upon noise, so 
that he who made himself the most audible did the best 
work. 

Four hundred dollars was the minimum set by law 
as required before a Seminary might be erected, and 
although the number of fines before Justices of the 
Peace (chiefly for assault and battery) seems extra- 
ordinary, the amounts ranging from one to five dollars, 
it is probable that not over half was ever collected, 
hence the fund accumulated but slowly. 

Trustees were successively appointed to manage the 
fund, make loans, etc., and its amount was reported in 
1828 as $210.53, by Samuel Connor, then trustee. 
The next five years must have been a comparatively 
pacific period, since by March, 1833, the sum total had 
grown to only $277.10, according to Shubael C. Little's 
report as trustee. 

About 1834-35 the fund had almost reached $400, so 
a small square brick seminary was erected in Rome, on 
Chestnut Street two blocks west of the public square, 
and was for years the leading (if not the only) school 
house in town, occupied in turn by several excellent 
teachers, some of whom held subscription schools not 
at county expense. 

Isaac Hill, a well-educated man from Maine, was 
said to have been the first teacher and continued for 
several terms, as did his successor, Charles Brown. 
Solomon Lamb also taught in this building, and another 
early teacher was John C. Shoemaker, afterward a 
notable horticulturist, besides the incumbent of several 
county and state offices. 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 97 

The frequent changes of teachers, each newcomer 
bringing to bear his own opinions upon problems he 
was not destined to remain long enough to solve, made 
practically impossible any educational scheme aiming 
at well-conceived results. With gradually increasing 
facilities of transportation, however, Perry County 
felt the advance ripples of that wave of population 
soon to sweep across the Middle West, covering South- 
ern Indiana perhaps less deeply than other sections, but 
still with effect. 

The pioneer Virginians, Carolinians and Maryland- 
ers who had crossed the Ohio were — in many instances 
— men of marked energy, mental and physical, who had 
made their own primitive schooling the foundation of 
a broader education whose dominant characteristic 
was an enlightment of mind wholly independent of 
mere scholarship. 

By heredity and environment they were thinkers, 
accustomed to look facts straight in the face, and thus 
had a training better in many ways than any school 
could furnish. From infancy they had lived in a cer- 
tain atmosphere of backwoods culture, drawn in part 
from the few — but good — books accessible to them, yet 
in greater part through association with the powerful 
men, founders of our Nation, from whom was caught 
that dauntless spirit which conquered a new, virgin 
territory and made of Indiana a princely possession of 
the great Republic. 

Adding to this Cavalier strain of blood the men of 
decided intellect who had come in smaller numbers 
from New England and the Middle Atlantic states, one 
can trace from the very first an impulse of betterment 
in the social atmosphere of Southern Indiana, a dis- 
tinct uplift, sufficient to raise the average level. Bring- 
ing thus from widely remote sections their ideas, con- 
victions, view-points, customs and standards of living, 
to dwell side by side in a region whose very fauna and 
flora show a singularly harmonious blending of two 
latitudes, Northerner and Southerner alike lost some- 

(7) 



98 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

what of prejudice and provincialism, gaining far more 
in a breadth of tolerant comprehension. 

Into the composite communities of Perry and the 
other river counties came now and again an Irish, a 
French or a German family, some 'Pennsylvania 
Dutch,' Scotch or Welsh, groups of Switzers, to become 
neighbours and friends. Each outgrew the narrow- 
ness or bigotry in which he had been bred and de- 
veloped a generous humanity unknown in sections 
whence each had come, so that Southern Indiana be- 
came more accurately representative of all that is best 
in American thought and life than any other part of 
the Union had ever been. 

Joshua B. Huckeby, Samuel Frisbie and Solomon 
Lamb constituted the first Board of School Examiners 
for Perry County, appointed 1836, from which time a 
more orderly system of organization and maintenance 
came by degrees into the county schools as a unit. 
From this time on 'to keep school' was no longer the 
privilege of any ignoramus happening to be out of a 
job, rigid examinations in test of their fitness being re- 
quired by the board of all who wished to serve as 
teachers. The courses of study were prescribed and 
regulated by boards, besides the choice of text-books 
and classification of pupils, even in country districts 
where complete grading was out of the question, and 
this personal supervision gave to school training a new 
and larger meaning which Perry County yet feels. 

After erection of the seminary itself the fund seems 
to have constantly accumulated without being ex- 
pended, and had reached $2,285.64 in 1853, when by 
change of law it was absorbed into the common school 
fund and the building sold to private parties, of whom 
Elijah B. Huckeby was the final owner, after another 
purchaser had failed to meet deferred payments. 

All three of the men comprising this original board 
were notable for their versatility, representing by birth 
the widely differing environments of Virginia, New 
York and Connecticut, and each in his turn played 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 99 

many parts upon the stage of Perry County official life, 
where their names are of frequent recurrence. 

Solomon Lamb was the senior of the others, both in 
years of age and of residence in the county, having 
come about 1808-09 from New York to Indiana with 
his parents, John and Beulah (Curtis) Lamb, whose 
eldest son he was. Born July 21, 1780, in Albany 
County, New York, he was married May 26, 1811, to 
Elizabeth Shepherd, a native of Kentucky. Like his 
father, he became the parent of twelve children: 1. 
Isabelle; 2. John; 3. William Shepherd; 4. Helen; 5. 
Amanda ; 6. Thomas ; 7. Robert Negus ; 8. Solomon, Jr. ; 
9. Israel; 10. Eliza; 11. Ezra B. ; 12. Cynthia. 

He lived first in Tobin Township, but soon afterward 
in Troy, when the county was officially organized. He 
was the first Sheriff, Recorder and Clerk, all in 1814, 
serving only two years in the first-named capacity, but 
holding the other two for a period of twenty-three 
years. His son, William S. Lamb, succeeded in 1837 to 
the position, which he held fourteen years, the longest 
tenure on record in Perry County of one office in a 
single family, father and son. In 1841 William S. 
Lamb also took his father's place as School Examiner, 
but the last office held by Solomon Lamb (County 
Commissioner, 1845,) does not appear to have been 
transmitted to any of the family at his death in 1848. 

William S. Lamb became a quartermaster with rank 
of major during the War Between the States, and his 
direct descendants now reside in Gibson County. Many 
lines of descent keep up the blood of John Lamb, Sr., 
and Solomon Lamb, Sr., in Indiana as well as other 
states, and near the old home place in Tobin Township 
a wide relationship has come down from the marriage 
of Israel Lamb, Sr., and Margaret ("Peggy") Winch el, 
a daughter of John and Rachel (Avery) Winchel. 
Israel Lamb was twice chosen Justice of the Peace, in 
1814 and 1817, and in 1818 another brother, John 
Lamb, was elected Sheriff. 



100 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Samuel Frisbie, born about 1779, in Plymouth, Litch- 
field County, Connecticut, who had been admitted to 
the bar in 1819, was one of the most notable and suc- 
cessful of the early resident lawyers and was elected 
County Treasurer in 1822. At the election of 1828 he 
was chosen Representative and was sent to the upper 
house two years later as joint-Senator. In 1833, 1835 
and 1840 he was elected Justice of the Peace, thus de- 
riving the title of 'Squire, which clung to him the re- 
mainder of his life, and in the Constitutional Conven- 
tion of 1850 he was Perry County's delegate, elected 
by one vote over his opponent. Dr. Robert G. Cotton, 
of Troy. 

His letters from Indianapolis, which were printed 
at the time in Perry County's first newspaper, the Can- 
nelton Economist, give their own testimony to his abil- 
ity and broad-minded views. As a lawyer he was above 
the average, painstaking and adroit in the management 
of a case, swift yet deep of comprehension, with the 
principles of common law thoroughly at heart. His 
acquaintance was extensive throughout Indiana and the 
expression then current, *a man of parts,' well de- 
scribes him. 

The provision contained in the new constitution that 
w^henever the citizens of Perry and Spencer Counties 
became so inclined they might establish metes and 
bounds of a new county, to be formed out of about equal 
parts of each, not to exceed one-third thereof, and that 
an election should then be held Whereby a majority of 
the voters in both counties should determine whether a 
new county should be formed, was not, however, the 
work of Samuel Frisbie, but represents an early phase 
of legislative "lobbying," reading between whose lines 
it is easy to trace the fine Italian hand of Troy. 

Resentful over their loss of the court house to Rome 
in 1818 the Trojans brought to bear a strong pressure 
on the convention, their leader being John P. Dunn, 
who had removed in 1846 to Troy from Dearborn 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 101 

County, his birthplace. He was a man of powerful 
personality, the father of eighteen children by three 
marriages, and was delegate from the senatorial dis- 
trict embracing Perry and Spencer. But the insertion 
of the aforesaid clause was the full measure of success 
gained, so far as Troy was concerned. Although Dunn 
himself was chosen Auditor of State in the election of 
1852 the local result was crushingly adverse to the 
Trojans' fond hopes, to-wit: For a new county, 311; 
against a new county, 1,041. 

Samuel Frisbie's death occurred May 24, 1854, and 
is thus recounted on the records of the circuit court 
then in session at Rome: "Mr. Pitcher (John Pitcher, 
Prosecutor) now here announces to this court that 
Samuel Frisbie, late an attorney of this court, departed 
this life at his residence in Rome on the twenty-fourth 
instant, whereupon, as a testimony of respect for the 
deceased, court adjourned until 3 o'clock p. m.. May 
25, 1854." 

Joshua Brannon Huckeby, often a colleague and not 
infrequently an opponent, was perhaps less versed in 
law, but as an orator was said to have wielded far 
more power over a jury than Frisbie, though a close 
personal intimacy existed between the two men, 
Huckeby surviving his friend and fellow-politician for 
an entire generation, or until March 22, 1889. 

Those were the golden days of stump speakings and 
cross-roads flag-raisings, now gone forevermore. Per- 
sonality rather than partisan issues struck the domi- 
nant note in all political discussion. He who could 
vituperate an adversary the more vehemently in joint 
debate was rated by his listeners the more powerful 
orator. 

Joshua B. Huckeby was elected a Justice of the Peace 
in 1833, and three times was sent to the Legislature 
as Representative, in 1837, 1843 and 1845. The sec- 
ond of these was that memorable session at which 
Lieutenant-Governor Jesse D. Bright as president of 



102 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

the Senate by his privilege of the casting vote post- 
poned the regular election of a United States Senator 
until the next session, whtn he hoped to be — and was — 
the victorious candidate. 

Doctor Robert G. Cotton, of Troy, was then Perry 
County's joint Senator, and in the lower house Knox 
County was represented for the first time by James D. 
Williams, who became Indiana's governor long years 
afterward, in the spectacular "Blue Jeans" campaign 
of 1876. David Macy, of Henry County, David P. Hol- 
loway, of Wayne County, William A. Bowles, of Orange 
County, Samuel Hanna, of Allen County, were fellow- 
members with whom Joshua B. Huckeby was closely 
associated, regardless of political differences. With the 
clerk of the house, William H. English, then of Scott 
County, and later Representative for the Third Con- 
gressional District, there grew up a very warm friend- 
ship which lasted into the old age of both men, al- 
though they wer« always violently antagonistic on the 
platform. 

Language of such flagrantly unparliamentary char- 
acter that it would not today be tolerated in a police 
station was smilingly bandied to and fro. Fancy a 
political speaker of 1916 — even a militant anti-suffrag- 
ist — rising to follow his opponent's address with the 
amazing preface: "Ladies and Gentlemen, the state- 
ment to which you have just listened from my friend 
English is as false as the dregs of Hell — and Bill Eng- 
lish knows it!" 

Such was a specimen of the joyous pleasantries and 
verbal badinage exchanged in the 'forties between 
Whig and Democrat who were "Josh" and "Bill" to one 
another even down through the presidential campaign 
of 1880, when Winfield Scott Hancock, of New York, 
and William H. English, of Indiana, headed the Demo- 
cratic ticket, while Joshua B. Huckeby was serving his 
twelfth year as Republican postmaster at Cannelton, 
an office he filled until Cleveland's first administration. 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 103 

He was a marked example of the Old School politi- 
cian, violently unrelenting in many inherited preju- 
dices, and always delighting to dwell reminiscently 
upon the political triumphs of those early years when 
—it was his favourite boast— he knew "every man in 
Perry County, his politics, his religion, and the nighest 
way to his house." 



CHAPTER XII 
FOUNDING OF LEOPOLD BY FATHER BESSONIES 

To THAT ardent missionary spirit of the French 
which, two centuries earlier, had sent Jacques Mar- 
quette and Jean du Lhut into an untamed continent's 
boundless wastes of forest verdure — mountains silent 
in primeval sleep; river, lake and glimmering pool, 
wilderness oceans mingling with the sky — may be at- 
tributed one phase of Perry County's development, 
distinctively individual from all the rest. 

Augustus Bessonies, who was born at Alzac, De- 
partement du Lot, France, on the day of Napoleon's 
final eclipse at Waterloo, June 17, 1815, was the 
chosen instrument for this werk, and in him lived 
again the dauntless courage of his consecrated prede- 
cessors. As a lad he attended the preparatory school 
of Montfaucon, going thence to the Seminary of Isse, 
near Paris, for the classics and natural philosophy. 

In 1836 Simon Guillaume Gabriel Brute, first Roman 
Catholic Bishop of Vincennes (with jurisdiction then 
covering all Indiana) paid a visit to Isse during a trip 
abroad, and although young Bessonies had already 
been received as a postulant for foreign mission by the 
Lazarist Order, upon the advice of his director, Father 
Pinault, he offered his services to the visiting prelate 
for his far-off American diocese. 

Great was the joy of Bishop Brute. Impulsively em- 
bracing Bessonies, he exclaimed : "Je suis heu7'eux a 
penser d'un autel nouveau dans ma chere Indixina" 
("I am happy to think of a new altar in my dear In- 
diana.") "But," he added, "I have no seminary at Vin- 
cennes. Remain, therefore at St. Sulpice, and in three 
years I will send for you." 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 105 

So he did, in 1839, but it was one of the latest acts 
in his long episcopal career. When Bessonies reached 
Havre to embark for America, the same sailing vessel 
in which he had engaged passage had brought to 
France the sad tidings of the good bishop's death. By 
the time the sorrowing deacon reached Indiana, Octo- 
ber 21, 1839, Bishop Brute had been committed to his 
last resting-place. In the crypt of a mortuary chapel 
beneath the high altar of St. Xavier's Cathedral his 
ashes repose to this day, and it is easy to feel that his 
spiritual presence was not far distant, to add its in- 
tangible benediction when Augustus Bessonies was ele- 
vated to the priesthood, February 22, 1840, by the Right 
Reverend Celestine Rene de la Haiiandiere, the new 
Bishop of Vincennes. 

Work among the Indians of Cass County, near Lo- 
gansport where the Pottawatomies and Miamis under 
Chief Godfrey long dwelt on their 'Richardville' reser- 
vation, was desired by Father Bessonies, but the deci- 
sion of his bishop sent him instead to the forests of 
Perry County as the first recorded minister of the Ro- 
man Catholic faith therein. With that far-seeing ec- 
clesiastical policy which in countless other instances 
has secured to the Church of Rome land grants of 
strategic value. Bishop de la Haiiandiere had entered, 
or soon entered, a tract near the geographical centre 
of Perry County, and it is no reflection upon his judg- 
ment that its destiny has not been all that he antici- 
pated. 

On page 355, of Deed Book C, in the County Recor- 
der's ofRce, we may read : 

"State of Indiana, Perry County : 

"I, the undersigned, in order to promote both the 
temporal and spiritual welfare of the French people 
coming from Europe, resolved to lay off a town of the 
name of Leopold, in which, with God's assistance, I in- 
tend to erect a temple to the glory of the Almighty 



106 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

for them to worship therein their Maker, according to 
the dictates of their conscience ; the most glorious privi- 
lege a human being can enjoy, and of which we boast 
in this country of Freedom, become for us an adopted 
Land of Promise. 

"Leopold is situated in Perry County, State of In- 
diana, in Township Five South, Range Two West, Sec- 
tion One, and contains forty acres, more or less, to-wit : 
the East half of the Southwest quarter of the South- 
west quarter ox section, township and range as above 
stated, containing twenty acres, more or less ; and the 
West half of the Southeast quarter of the Southwest 
quarter of section, township and range above men- 
tioned, containing twenty acres, be the same more or 
less. 

"There is in Leopold one hundred lots. The town is 
laid off with six North and South streets running the 
whole length of the town, every one of them numbering 
(60) feet in width; the first street commencing at the 
Northeast quarter is Belgium Street; the second, Ce- 
lestine Street; the third, Lafayette Street; the Fourth, 
Washington Street ; the fifth, Caroline Street, the sixth, 
German Street. 

"There is also six streets East and West, sixty feet 
in width. The first is named Rome Street ; the second, 
Ohio Street; the third, Indiana Street; the fourth, St. 
Louis Street ; the fifth, Troy Street ; the sixth, St. Au- 
gustine Street. 

"Each lot contains ninety-nine feet square, and every 
one of them is a comer lot. Four lots in the centre of 
Leopold will be kept for a public square, to-wit: the 
forty-fifth, forty-sixth, fifty-fifth and fifty-sixth ; which 
lots I keep the right to dispose of and to donate to the 
county for any public advantage, with other property 
whenever Leopold will be a county seat. 

"To the credit thereof, before any court of the United 
States, or any magistrate whomsoever, I give my hand 
and usual seal. Given at Leopold, Perry County, In- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 107 

diana, the eleventh day of November, eighteen hundred 
and forty-two. 

"(Signed) Augustus Bessonies, Cath. P." 

"State of Indiana, Perry County : 

"Be it remembered that on the eleventh day of No- 
vember, eighteen hundred and forty-two, personally 
appeared before me, an acting Justice of the Peace for 
the county aforesaid, Augustus Bessonies, who ac- 
knov/ledged the foregoing deed to be his voluntary act 
and deed for the purpose therein mentioned. Given 
under my hand and seal the day and year aforesaid. 

(SEAL) Arnold Elder, J. P." 

Father Bessonies' own words, therefore, tell us the 
story of Leopold's founding, with a simplicity of pur- 
pose whose equivalent is only to be found in that won- 
derful Compact signed by the Pilgrim Fathers 

" on the waves of the bay 



Where the Mayflower lay," 

or among those peaceful Friends who laid out, in 
Penn's Woods on the Delaware, their City of Brotherly 
Love, 

"Whose streets still re-echo the names of the trees 
of the forest." 

Difficult, indeed, must have been the beginning of 
Father Bessonies' pastoral labours in that almost un- 
broken forest which yet covered practically all of 
Southern Indiana, where clearings were few, estab- 
lished highways unknown, and the only travel possible 
by means of the blazed trees marking a course through 
the tall timber from one place to another. Further- 
more, although a graduated seminarian, the brave 
young priest's acquaintance with the English tongue 
was still rudimentary, while the point toward his steps 
were turned was as yet unnamed, even in Perry 



108 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

County, and the way thither from Vincennes might 
have puzzled a seasoned backwoodsman. 

A few years earlier, however, the Rev. Maurice de 
St. Palais (of noble French lineage, and later third 
Bishop of Vincennes), had established a mission upon 
the banks of Patoka River in Dubois County, for the 
German families living near, so Father Bessonies at 
length found himself safely in charge of the Rev. Jo- 
seph Kundek, of Jasper, to whom he was recommended 
for instructions as to the final stages of his somewhat 
vague journey. 

Father Kundek had had the advantage of ten years' 
forest experience and it is told that he had himself 
blazed an original trail from Jasper to the site which 
he chose in 1840 for a new town, naming it Ferdinand, 
for the Emperor then reigning in Austria-Hungary. 
He drew, therefore, with his own hand a map, indicat- 
ing by unmistakable natural landmarks such as rocks, 
creeks and hills, the route which Father Bessonies fol- 
lowed to his destination. 

Nor was this the only instance wherein the revered 
Jasper priest marked out a path for his younger cler- 
ical brother, there being a distinct parallel in the ex- 
tensive work carried on by the two men, with a strenu- 
ous activity unsparing of personal strength. Ill health, 
developed through exposure, brought Father Kundek's 
earthly life to its end, December 4, 1857, and the mag- 
nitude of his labours lying altogether outside Perry 
County may not be herein dwelt upon. 

Father Bessonies, however, was one of those "men — 
so strong that they come to four-score years," living 
until February 22, 1901, being at that time Vicar Gen- 
eral to the Right Reverend Francis Silas Chatard in 
Indianapolis, and an honourary Monsignor of the Vati- 
can household, a title conferred upon him January 22, 
1884, by Pope Leo XIII. 

Held in affectionate esteem by people of every re- 
ligion, or of none, for his many virtues, and for that 
winning disposition of bonhomie, which can not be 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 109 

portrayed by an English equivalent, the fondest love of 
Monsignor Bessonies himself was always cherished 
toward the flock and field of his first twelve years' 
work, and Perry County was dear to his heart until 
the end; especially those parishes of Leopold, Cannel- 
ton, Derby, Oil Creek and Troy, where he was the first 
Roman Catholic who ever officiated. 

He was, also, a veritable "circuit rider," with a 
weekly schedule which long read thus : Sunday, masses 
in Leopold and Derby; Monday, Leavenworth; Tues- 
day, Corydon ; Wednesday, Newton Stewart ; Thursday, 
Jasper; Friday, Taylorville; Saturday, Rockport; and 
a volume could be filled with incidents thrilling and 
pathetic of his career in the wilderness. 

An acquaintance with William H. English, formed 
during the presidential campaign of 1844, became a 
warm personal friendship, and it was through the in- 
fluence of English at Washington, whither he had gone 
to accept an important position in the Treasury De- 
partment, that President Polk established in 1847 a 
postoffice at Leopold, Father Bessonies receiving the 
appointment as postmaster. 

A kinsman of the English family had already located 
in the tiny hamlet, Doctor William P. Drumb, its first 
resident physician, if resident be the correct term de- 
scribing a rural practitioner whose range of patients 
was scarcely narrower than the circle of Father Bes- 
sonies' parishioners. Doctor Drumb and William H. 
English were first cousins on the maternal line, grand- 
sons of Philip Eastin, "a Lieutenant in the Fourth Vir- 
ginia Regiment in the War of the American Revolu- 
tion," to quote the inscription on the tombstone mark- 
ing the spot of his burial, 1817, in the Riker's Ridge 
(or Hillis) Cemetery, a romantic spot overlooking the 
Ohio River, in Jefferson County, some few miles north- 
east of Madison. 

William P. Drumb and his wife, Sarah A. Stevens, 
were the parents of seven children, the eldest son, 
Elisha English Drumb, born May 20, 1841, in Leopold, 



110 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

and educated for three years at West Point, becom- 
ing a successful lawyer and conspicuous politician in 
Cannelton, the father being the first County Clerk who 
lived there after it became the county seat in 1859. 
Through deaths and removals the children became 
widely scattered, none of the third generation now re- 
siding in Perry County. 

The Drumbs were almost the only family of purely 
American stock coming into Leopold Township after 
the very earliest entries of Cunningham, Frakes, Mayo 
and a few others, but the French and Belgian immi- 
grants of the 'forties have left a numerous progeny on 
the lands then taken up. Among the many names, 
only few of whom can be here enumerated, are noted 
Andrew Peter, Who felled the first tree in the heavy 
timber and thick underbrush on the site where Leopold 
stands today ; Jerome and Gustave Goffinet ; Jean Bap- 
tiste Marcilliat; Jean and Victor Goffinet; Andre Jo- 
seph Marcilliat ; Gerard Joseph Collignon ; Jean Fran- 
cois Allard; Frangois Genet; Catherine Naviaux; Jean 
Baptiste and Josephine Nicolay ; Dominic Demonet and 
Joseph James, both early merchants; Joseph Francois 
Claudel; Auguste Reynaud; John A. Courcier, a vet- 
eran of the Second War with England ; Frangois Devil- 
lez; James Hanonville and Jean Joseph Maire. All 
these were pioneer landholders. 

Almost equally early came Peter and Angeline (Em- 
ery) Casper, with their twelve children, from Wurt- 
temburg, the father having been a soldier under Na- 
poleon. They were among the few German settlers of 
the locality. Somewhat later Peter and Margaret 
(Devillez) George, who were natives, respectively, of 
Hachy and Nobresart, Luxembourg, arrived with a 
family of ten children, so both these names are now 
extensively represented. 

To his own patron saint, St. Augustine, was dedi- 
cated Father Bessonies' first church, a small log build- 
ing at the southern edge of Leopold, eventually super- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 111 

seded by the present massive stone edifice on the same 
site, in the midst of "God's Acre" where 

"Each in his narrow cell forever laid, 
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep." 

St. Mary's on the hill overlooking Derby, was his 
next mission established, followed by St. Croix, on Oil 
Creek, near what is now Branchville, and St. Pius, in 
Troy, at about the same period relatively from now. 

The growing village of Cannelton could not be dis- 
regarded by the zealous pastor, who found among its 
newcomers many who were the spiritual children of 
his own faith and craved its ministrations. Only one 
place of public worship had been built, the Unitarian 
meeting-house at the corner of Washington and Third 
Streets (later becoming St. Luke's Episcopal Church), 
and since by the extreme liberality of its donors the 
edifice was open to every shade of belief, it was within 
its walls, on Sunday, June 10, 1849, following a service 
held by Father Bessonies, that the first Roman Catho- 
lic organization in Cannelton was effected. 

Most of the ten or twelve families composing the pro- 
posed congregation were Irish by nativity or descent, 
so the trustees then elected. Dr. J. B. Smith, John W. 
Lyons, Anthony Clark and Michael Connor, were 
chosen as "trustees of a church to be erected in Cannel- 
ton, to be called St. Patrick's." From the American 
Cannel Company came the gift of an excellent lot in 
Seventh Street, facing the head of Madison Street, suf- 
ficiently large to accommodate future parochial build- 
ings, besides a small parish cemetery. Such a donation 
had been customary with the company toward all re- 
ligious and educational projects, with further liberal 
contributions of stone and other building materials. 

Work was not begun until the following summer, but 
by the end of August the small stone edifice was under 
roof, and on September 22, 1850, the Eighteenth Sun- 
day after Pentecost, mass was said for the first time 
in the church. Father Bessonies officiated, and con- 



112 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

tinued to serve the congregation for some three years, 
or until his removal from Perry County to Jefferson- 
ville. The parish had grown to a size demanding a 
resident clergyman, so the Rev. Bede O'Connor, one 
of the Benedictines from St. Meinrad's Abbey, v^^as 
placed in charge. 

On Low Sunday, April 15, 1855, he was succeeded 
by the Rev. Michael Marendt, the third pastor of St. 
Patrick's and its last as an independent parish, the 
new, affiliated body of St. Michael's being separated 
from the mother-church by mutual agreement, Febru- 
ary 28, 1858. 

Seventy-eight German-speaking families then erected 
St. Michael's Church, still standing at the corner of 
Washington and Eighth Streets, leaving St. Patrick's 
Church to the English-speaking members of the con- 
gregation ; the priest's house to belong to both, for the 
use of the clergy serving the two parishes. The Rev. 
Chrysostom Foffa, O. S. B., laid the cornerstone of St. 
Michael's Church, June 13, 1858, Peter Clemens, Nich- 
olas Kasper, John H. Spieker and Jacob Wiss being 
trustees. 

One year later, or June 19, 1859, the massive stone 
building, a handsome type of Perpendicular Gothic 
architecture, was solemnly blessed by the Rev. Bede 
O'Connor, though the graceful spire, rising to a height 
of 156 feet and a landmark to every traveller approach- 
ing Cannelton, was not finished for more than another 
twelvemonth. On September 30, 1860, however, the 
bell which still strikes the hours as a town-clock for all 
the citizens (three others, purchased ten years later, 
marking the quarters) was raised to the belfry after 
benediction and rang out for the first time its Angelus. 



CHAPTER XIII 

RONO AND NORTHEASTERN PORTION OF COUNTY 

Troy was the second community in Perry County to 
become an incorporated town, the enactment being the 
work of Dr. Robert G. Cotton, a resident of the place, 
who represented the county in the Legislature of 1837, 
and later in the same year the first board of trustees 
was elected, consisting of Jacob Protzman, James B. 
Worthington, John Bristow, John Daniel and John 
Huff. This organization lapsed after a few years, 
however, — perhaps three or four — and an attempt to 
revive the corporation about ten years later resulted 
in failure. In the spring of 1859 the town was rein- 
corporated, with Dr. Magnus Brucker, Cullen C. Cot- 
ton, Samuel K. Connor, Jacob Daunhauer and William 
T. Washer as trustees; David R. Hubbs, clerk, treas- 
urer and assessor. Their first meeting was held May 
4, 1859, when town ordinances were adopted, a cor- 
porate levy fixed, and the municipality has maintained 
a continuous existence thenceforward. 

Investigation having discovered around Troy a de- 
posit of brown marly clay of the quaternary epoch, 
from which it was believed that the finer white wares 
so extensively manufactured in England could be pro- 
duced, in 1838 a charter was granted the Indiana Pot- 
tery Company "to manufacture at Troy, from the fire- 
clay beds there, Rockingham and other stoneware." 

Among the stockholders were Samuel Casseday, 
John Bell, William Garvin, E. T. Bainbridge and Per- 
ley Chamberlain, of Louisville, besides Reuben Bates 
of Troy, who subscribed as his portion of the invest- 
ment a tract of 160 acres of land adjoining Troy, under 
which lay the clay. Means to erect the required build- 

(8) 



114 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

ings and purchase the necessary apparatus were fur- 
nished by other members of the company. 

By way of insuring success to the new enterprise, 
it was regarded as essential to import experienced la- 
bour, and potters of supposed skill were induced to 
come in considerable numbers from England. While 
some few of these brought out were trained men of in- 
dustrious character, the majority arriving were the 
cast-off idlers and worthless scum of the Staffordshire 
potteries, who came to America merely as a holiday, 
having nothing to lose; or to evade the unsavoury 
reputation they had earned for themselves in the Five 
Towns. 

The Troy pottery started up with flattering pros- 
pects, but in a short while the impossibility of making 
white ware from the clay was demonstrated, and the 
labourers showed themselves in their true light, spend- 
ing over half their time in sheer idleness when pre- 
sumably at work. 

After a year of anxious effort by the company, busi- 
ness suspended, and the plant was placed in charge of 
Samuel Casseday, who leased it from time to time for 
various periods to some of the English workmen. He 
became the recognized owner and leased it in 1851 to 
Samuel Wilson and John Sanders, who continued the 
manufacture of yellow and Rockingham ware, through 
sundry vicissitudes of fire and calamity, becoming ab- 
solute owners of the property about 1860 when a two- 
story brick building was erected by Wilson alone. San- 
ders' death occurred in 1863, when his interests were 
leased to Benjamin Hinchco, an Englishman, like his 
associates. 

In the extreme eastern portion of Perry County no 
town plat has ever been regularly laid out and re- 
corded, but in very early times the home of an old set- 
tler on the river bank, some few miles below the Craw- 
ford County line, came to be known as Dodson's Land- 
ing, where there was a woodyard, and where passing 
store-boats stopped to traffic with the few neighbour- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 115 

ing residents, Jesse Martin later carried on the wood- 
yard for some years, until his death about 1840, after 
which his widow continued the business. 

Job Hatfield, one of several brothers in an Ohio fam- 
ily, came down the river about 1842 in a store-boat, 
and after remaining for a year or two afloat though 
tied to the bank, with increasing trade at this point, 
finally landed his boat above high-water mark and con- 
ducted the store as a fixed establishment, moving his 
family into a log dwelling which had been commenced 
by the Martins. 

From that time to the present the Hatfield family, 
through the lines of Job, Lorenzo Dow and William, 
have been associated with the frowning cliffs of ''Buz- 
zards' Roost," which come close to the river north of 
the rich bottom land between Oil Creek and the Ohio. 
In earlier days they were of important connection with 
the mercantile, professional and political affairs of 
Perry County, but the family name and stock is now 
more largely represented in Spencer, Warrick and 
Vanderburg Counties. 

When a mail route was established in 1848 between 
Leavenworth and Cannelton, extending to Rockport, 
Job Hatfield was appointed postmaster and the settle- 
ment appears under the name Rono. This was said to 
be the name of an old dog once owned by Jesse Martin, 
which lived to an extraordinary age. Whether or not 
a true story, the hamlet remained as Rono until 1896, 
when the postal department changed it to Magnet, the 
present title. 

The most important, if not the only, commercial in- 
terest of early Rono was the slaughtering and packing 
trade carried on for many years by the Hatfields, a 
massive stone smoke-house, built after a disastrous 
fire in 1856, yet standing in testimony to their exten- 
sive operations. They also conducted a business in 
general produce and merchandise, shipping flatboats 
South like most other dealers of their time. 

Job Hatfield was the last treasurer of Perry County 



116 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

who held office in the old court-house at Rome, and an 
interesting story, not without its exciting side, is re- 
called concerning an incident of his term, 1856-1860. 

There were then no banks in the county, available 
as depositories, and the county funds were kept in such 
places of security as the treasurer could devise. On 
one occasion of taxpaying, when certain exceptionally 
large sums had been paid in, some circumstances 
aroused Treasurer Hatfield's suspicions, so that he de- 
termined to leave no money in the rather fragile county 
safe that night. 

Carrying home, therefore, after dark all the coin and 
bills, in a huge sack whose weight was about all he 
could handle, he put it into a coal-scuttle which he next 
filled to the brim with loose coal, completely hiding the 
money-bag. Then calmly going to sleep, the first news 
to greet his awakening was that the treasurer's office 
had been "robbed," the safe broken into and all its con- 
tents stolen. 

Hatfield received the startling messages with no sign 
of disturbance, merely saying that he would be at the 
court-house for business at his usual hour. And so he 
was, quietly bringing with him the money which he 
had in private removed from its place of concealment, 
so that no one, not even his immediate family, knew 
until long afterward just where the county treasure 
had been hidden over night. 

The first physician of Rono was Dr. Hiram M. Curry, 
born September 23, 1827, in Brown County, Ohio, a son 
of William and Hannah (Adkins) Curry, who were 
natives, respectively, of Virginia and New York. After 
attending an academy in Maysville, Kentucky, and 
Shurtleff College, Alton, Illinois, he took a three years' 
course in Ohio Medical College, soon afterward locating 
in Perry County, where for two years he was associ- 
ated with Dr. William P. Drumb, of Leopold. 

Later, he practiced alone at Rono, and for one year 
(1853) at Rome while filling out the unexpired term of 
William Van Winkle as auditor. Still later he lived at 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 117 

Grandview, at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at Cannelton, 
and lastly in Spencer County again. His first mar- 
riage was to Julia A. Hatfield, of Rono, May 18, 1855 ; 
Letitia Lamar, of Spencer County, becoming his sec- 
ond wife in 1864; and Fannie W. Smith, his third, in 
1883. The offspring of these three unions keep up 
the Curry name elsewhere in Southern Indiana. 

Probably the earliest minister of the Gospel in east- 
ern Perry County was Joseph Springer, who organized 
a Methodist class, meeting first in his own home and 
later at the log "Springer School-House," one of the 
most conspicuous school-buildings of the time in its 
locality. Meetings were also held near Leopold, where 
some of the members resided, as people then went 
many miles for the privileges of divine worship. Cir- 
cuit riders came once a month, or more seldom, and a 
journey of six or eight miles was considered nothing. 

The Springers, Hatfields, Currys, Barrs, Borers, 
Heddens and Daileys were pioneer Methodists, and an 
early organization of the United Brethren (eventually 
disbanded) had several branches of the Myers and Fig- 
gins families as its principal members. Among the 
Universalists near Rono who held meetings at Beech 
Grove School-House were the Ewings, Tates, Spencers, 
Richardsons, Ballards and Millers, while Weedman, 
Farmer, Stiles, Cost, Rosecrans and Sinclair were 
names constituting the membership of a strong class 
who built a Disciples of Christ church some few miles 
west of Rono. 

Some distance farther to the interior, and nearer to 
where Branchville was laid out in 1866, the Oil Creek 
Baptist Church was organized in 1851, by the Rev. R. 
M. Snyder and the Rev. J. Armstrong. Among its 
original members were James Falkenborough and his 
wife Barbara. Polly Frakes, Nancy Shaver, Daniel 
Rhodes and Charles A. Cunningham, the first clerk. 
The Cunningham family have maintained to the pres- 
ent their active support of this denomination and rank 
among the foremost Baptists in Perry County. 



118 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Although material and commercial development was 
more marked elsewhere, the eastern section of the 
county furnished the earliest example of systematic 
effort toward mental and social culture, especially com- 
mendable in view of the sparsely settled region. The 
first regular organization (other than religious) re- 
corded in Perry County was "The Flint Island Ly- 
ceum," whose initial meeting was held January 19, 
1843, its preamble then adopted stating that: "We, 
the citizens of Perry County, Indiana, being desirous of 
literary improvement and the dissemination of useful 
knowledge, agree to form ourselves into a literary so- 
ciety." 

W. A. T. Blakeburn was chosen permanent presi- 
dent, and Israel Stevenson, secretary, while among 
others signing the constitution and by-laws appeared 
the names of William Stark Minor, Jonathan D. Esa- 
rey, J. H. Esarey, Fielding Deen, Joseph Deen, J. E. 
Springer, John Peckenpaugh, Richard Myers, William 
Myers, I. W. Myers, James Myers, William Figgins, 
Reily Figgins, W. L. Sapp, William Hatfield, Joseph 
McFall, Wesley Riddle, Stephen Martin, Andrew Gilli- 
land, Thomas Gilliland, J. A. Gilliland (non-residents) 
and others. During the lifetime of the society it was 
well conducted, with the usual exercises of debates, 
discussions, declamations and orations, until its even- 
tual abandonment. 

The Sons of Temperance organized about 1847 at 
Rc.me a branch of the national order which had been 
established five years earlier in New York City, con- 
tinuing their zealous work for several years, extend- 
ing to Cannelton and other points nearby, though 
without long duration. 

The first of the great fraternal societies to enter Per- 
ry County was the Masonic order, Morris Lodge No. 
97, F. and A. M., being instituted April 27, 1849, at 
Cannelton, with N. H. Ewing, W. M. ; Elijah Moore, 
S. W., and E. M. Clark, J. W. Its charter was granted 
one month later, May 29, 1849, with the following 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 119 

charter officers: Abijah Moore, W. M. ; E. M. Clark, 
S. W.; Joshua B. Huckeby, J. W. ; R. G. Tift, Secre- 
tary; Shubal C. Little, Treasurer; G. K. Foots, S. D.; 
S. Nosinger, J. D. ; E. Moore, T. 

Owing to internal differences this lodge surrendered 
its charter after three years and was granted a dispen- 
sation October 7, 1852, as Cannelton Lodge No. 152, 
with M. F. Ross, W. M. ; E. Moore, S. W. ; and Joseph 
M. Gest, J. W., to whom a new charter, still in effect, 
was granted May 26, 1853. 

James Lodge No. 100, L 0. O. F., was instituted No- 
vember 29, 1851, in Cannelton, by G. B. Jocelyn, D. G. 
M., with Willard Claflin, N. G. ; Ziba H. Cook, V. G. ; 
M. Fitzpatrick, Secretary; Jacob B. Maynard, Treas- 
urer. January 21, 1852, is the date of its charter and 
Thomas Hay was its first initiate. 

Its career has been one of uniform success, and it is 
the only order (1915) in Cannelton owning its hall. 
A building fund was commenced in 1866, $1,500 being 
realized by a notable fair held in Mozart Hall, a not- 
able assembly-place in Cannelton's earlier years, still 
standing at the corner of Front and Madison Streets. 
Now put to prosaic uses, its fort-like stone walls give 
no hint of gaieties they once beheld. 

On November 28, 1878, the present Odd Fellows' 
Hall, a substantial brick edifice at the corner of Third 
and Washington Streets, costing over $10,000, contain- 
ing handsome and appropriately furnished lodge- 
rooms, was formally dedicated by official ceremonial, 
followed by an elaborate banquet, and a ball, at night, 
which was one of the most brilliant semi-public func- 
tions ever witnessed in Cannelton. 

Rome Lodge No. 133, F. and A. M., was chartered 
May 26, 1852, with John C. Shoemaker, W. M. ; Isaac 
W. Whitehead, S. W. ; William Hyde, J. W. Its mem- 
bership, at first small, became later large and active, 
but has undergone the usual vicissitudes of a declining 
community, though always a high standard of enthu- 
siasm and efficiency. Some of Southern Indiana's most 



120 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

learned brethren of the compass and square took their 
work as neophytes in the hall of old Rome Lodge. 
Noteworthy among these were three sons of Elijah 
Brannon Huckeby — Lawrence Brannon, George Perry 
and Robert Thompson Huckeby — each of whom be- 
came profoundly versed in ritual of the ancient craft. 
Troy Lodge No. 256, F. and A. M., was organized 
August 20, 1859, under a dispensation authorizing the 
institution exercises, when the officers installed were: 
Remus W. Tong, W. M.; William T. Washer, S. W.; 
S. S. Amos, J. W. ; J. G. Heinzle, Treasurer; William 
Basye, Secretary ; Charles McNutt, S. D. ; Dr. Magnus 
Brucker, J. D. ; Henry Jordan, T. The charter was is- 
sued by the Grand Lodge of Indiana, May 30, 1860, 
and the rolls show John D. Williamson to have been 
the first candidate raised. 



/ 
/ 
/ 



CHAPTER XIV 

LAWYERS, JUDGES AND FIRST NEWSPAPERS. 

At the May term, 1846, Judge Embree was suc- 
ceeded by Hon. James Lockhart, of Vanderburg 
County, who had already become one of the foremost 
lawyers in Southern Indiana, so that his elevation to 
the bench of the Fourth Judicial Circuit was a deserved 
tribute to his ability. 

For several years an indictment for kidnapping had 
been standing on the court docket of Perry County 
against Benjamin S. Harrison and William B. Harri- 
son, reciting that they had forcibly taken a free negro 
named Thomas, living in the county, had conveyed him 
into one of the Southern states and sold him as a slave. 
In 1846 two other free negro residents of Perry 
County, Abraham and Abigail, were abducted by Na- 
thaniel Dupree — not "Simon Legree" — carried South 
and sold into slavery. 

None of these offenders was ever found by officers 
or brought to justice. Although slavery was not per- 
mitted on Indiana soil, sentiment in the river counties 
recognized it as a vigourous institution flourishing just 
over the border, and it was a statutory crime anywhere 
in the state to harbour fugitive slaves, so that pursuit 
of Dupree or the Harrisons was regarded as unim- 
portant. 

The last in line of associate judges before the office 
was abolished were: Thomas Tobin, 1837; Stephen 
Shoemaker, 1838; Amos L. D. Williams, 1844; James 
Wheeler, 1845 ; John Groves, 1846 ; Daniel Curry, 1851 ; 
and Samuel Miller, 1851. Among the attorneys ad- 
mitted were Lemuel Q. De Bruler, George W. Williams 
and William H. Hanna, 1846 ; Thomas F. DeBruler and 



122 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Nathaniel C. Foster, 1847; David T. Laird and James 
E. Blythe, 1848. These men were all from other coun- 
ties, though the De Brulers and Laird, who lived in 
Rockport, were regularly identified with Perry County 
practice during their generation. 

In 1849 Cannelton's first resident lawyer was ad- 
mitted, Charles H. Mason, who had just taken up his 
abode there after the customary short period spent in 
Kentucky. He was a native of New Hampshire (Wal- 
pole, his Cheshire County, birthplace, being also Gen- 
eral Seth Hunt's home town), belonging to that old 
Colonial family of the Captain John Mason who with 
Sir Fernando Gorges had founded, in 1622, the royal 
province of "Laconia" under charter from James I. It 
was after a division of this grant that Captain Mason 
bestowed upon his portion the name New Hampshire, 
to commemorate the English shire of Hants (Hamp- 
shire) where the Masons had long held estates. 

Charles Holland Mason, born August 9, 1826, was 
the son of Joseph and Harriet (Ormsby) Mason, and 
received a thorough classical education to fit him for 
the law, a profession for which he seemed to possess 
a hereditary bent. A near collateral relative, to whom 
he bore a striking personal resemblance, was the Hon. 
Jeremiah Mason, of Boston, for many years the law 
partner of Daniel Webster. 

No resident lawyer practicing before the Perry Cir- 
cuit Court, or upon the Common Pleas bench, where 
he sat twice during the existence of that court, ever 
ranked higher than Charles H. Mason. Of distinc- 
tively oratorical temperament, profound in legal lore, 
he was a strong speaker, witty, high-minded and elo- 
quent. He founded Perry County's first newspaper, 
the Cannelton Economist, in 1849, maintaining it at a 
remarkable standard while its editor, and in later life 
was a constant contributor of brilliant miscellany to 
many journals and some of the best magazines. Under 
the nom-de-plume of "Sandstone" his writings, pur- 
porting to come from Rock Island, were a feature of 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 123 

Cannelton journalism during the sixties and seventies, 
along the same line of humourous character sketches 
which have given "Abe Martin" a place in current lit- 
erature. 

March 21, 1852, in Cannelton, Charles H. Mason was 
married to Rachel Littell (Huckeby) Wright, a daugh- 
ter of Joshua B. and Rebecca (Lang) Huckeby, but no 
children were born to the union, which was of thirty 
years duration, terminated February 26, 1883, by Mrs. 
Mason's death. In 1890 Judge Mason, who had con- 
tinued to reside in Cannelton, was appointed by Presi- 
dent Benjamin Harrison as United States Commis- 
sioner for the Indian Territory (before the organiza- 
tion of Oklahoma) with headquarters at Vinita, where 
he died in June, 1894. 

In 1850 Thomas 0. Stonements was admitted to 
practice before the Perry County bar, and the follow- 
ing year the names of William A. Wandell and John W. 
Grimes were recorded. 

In October, 1851, Governor Joseph A. Wright com- 
missioned as successor to Judge Lockhart for the 
Fourth district circuit, a man whose personal distinc- 
tion was the highest of any ever wearing judicial er- 
mine or holding aloft the scales of Justice in Perry 
County, Alvin P. Hovey, of Mount Vernon, a native 
Indianian whom his fellow citizens delighted to hon- 
our, and who at his death forty years later, November 
26, 1891, was loyally serving them in the most exalted 
ofRce within their gift — as Governor of Indiana. 

His ability more than sufficed to grasp the most tan- 
gled intricacies of law, solving every problem with 
equity and a conservatism which rigidly sustained the 
dignity of the bench under all circumstances. Such 
a standard of authority had not been habitual in nisi 
prius courts, and while Judge Hovey's personality 
commanded for itself the highest esteem of all, his 
natural disposition was better fitted for the Supreme 
Bench which he later adorned. 

His military record as Brigadier-General during the 



124 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

War Between the States was that of a brilliant com- 
mander; beloved, from his staff -officers down to pri- 
vates; surpassed by none in patriotic devotion to his 
state and his country. Recognition of this was made 
in President Johnson's appointing him Envoy Extraor- 
dinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Peru, where 
he figured as a polished diplomat, choosing as his First 
Secretary of Legation a young Perry County man, 
Thomas James de la Hunt, who had previously been 
a favourite Adjutant on his staff. 

Burwell B. Lea was prosecuting attorney in 1848, 
living at Rome, and was described as a keen, shrewd 
lawyer, not particularly well-read but so fluent before 
a jury that his clients with little of law or equity in 
their favour were frequently rewarded by a far greater 
success than they had reason to anticipate. 

William A. Wandell, of Cannelton, admitted in 1851, 
was probably an abler man, though of somewhat the 
same type, and obtained his first prominence in the 
criminal court of Hancock County, Kentucky, where 
he assisted in defending the notorious Robert and 
Moses Kelly. 

These two brothers were hanged in Hawesville in 
the spring of 1853, after a trial which found them 
guilty of brutally murdering three men — Gardner, Mil- 
ler and an unidentified deckhand, Friday night, Octo- 
ber 22, 1852, on board the fiatboat Eliza No. 2, tied 
up near Thompson's Ferry, between Troy and Lewis- 
port, Their execution was the first ever held any- 
where near and was witnessed by thousands of specta- 
tors, so that it became a standard by which all other 
public gatherings were measured for years after- 
ward, and "the biggest crowd since the Kellys were 
hung" became an oft-repeated saying. 

Judge Hovey was the last President Judge who sat 
between Associate Judges upon the bench in Perry 
County, as the courts of Indiana underwent a radical 
change by the adoption of the new constitution of 1852. 
Many of the old common law proceedings were forever 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 125 

dispensed with, and the stream of litigation appears 
to have flowed in a smoother channel when that class of 
contentious actions known as "Trespass on the Case," 
"Trover," "Assumpsit," "Case," and others of similar 
nature passed from sight. 

The present code has been in force since May 9, 1853, 
upon which date, it has been said, "there were buried 
beneath reform in pleading and practice the remains 
of John Doe and Richard Roe, who had been familiar 
to every lawyer from time immemorial, and had sup- 
plied a legal fiction in actions for recovery of real es- 
tate, but the new law provided that every case should 
be prosecuted by the real party in interest, and upon 
the real party complained of." 

John Doe and Richard Roe were mythical personages 
who had so long appeared as plaintiff and defendant in 
common law that the memory of man runneth not to 
the contrary. The cheerful alacrity with which John 
always stepped in to vindicate the alleged right of the 
man out of possession, and the equal promptness of 
Richard to insist that the man in possession was the 
lawful owner and entitled to retain his tenancy, were 
such that the final leave-taking of these doughty 
knights-errant of the common law was not free from 
regret. 

With an abolition of these fictions, a modification and 
simplification of many terms by which land was held 
in feudal times, much of the intricate learning of the 
old law has faded away, save as mere matters of his- 
tory. Those who had studied common law and by long 
years of practice had become thoroughly imbued with 
its principles, admired it for its grandeur, wisdom and 
equality, and because it embodied the right system of 
social and political economy. 

It had been rooted in the experience of ages and its 
adherents were awe-struck at any attempt to prune it 
of even the smallest branches. Innovation was re- 
garded as sacrilege by many of the elder practitioners, 
who refused to become reconciled to the change, and 



126 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

not a few went so far as to abandon the practice of 
their beloved profession. Subsequent years, however, 
have proven beyond shadow of doubt that the legisla- 
tion of 1852 inestimably faciliated the practice of law 
in Indiana. 

Ballard Smith, a native of Durham, Strafford 
County, New Hampshire (a brother of Hamilton 
Smith), who had become a resident of Cannelton in 
1853, was the first attorney admitted to the Perry 
County bar under the new code, at the November term, 
1853, and was also the last admitted by Judge Hovey. 

William E. Niblack became the next circuit judge, 
in May, 1854, coming from his home in Martin County, 
where he had practised for only a few years at Dover 
Hill, and was unusually young to be called to a position 
of such importance. Notwithstanding his inexperi- 
ence, he made an excellent judge, as extraordinary 
common-sense came to his aid when legal lore proved 
lacking, enabling him to administer equity if not law. 
Honesty and uprightness, added to kindness and affa- 
bility were qualities which made friends throughout 
the circuit, so that he was sent later by his district to 
Congress, and afterward became an important member 
of the Indiana Supreme Court. 

Another change in ownership of the thousand-acre 
tract lying along the river northwest of Cannelton, en- 
tered 1811 by Nicholas J. Roosevelt but soon trans- 
ferred to Robert Fulton and held for some thirty years 
by the Fulton heirs in chancery, brought into Perry 
County as a distinguished citizen, Elisha Mills Hunt- 
ington, who had been a resident of Terre Haute since 
1822 and who in 1841 had received from President Van 
Buren his appointment as Judge of the Indiana Dis- 
trict Federal Court. 

Judge Huntington belonged to that noted Connecti- 
cut family which furnished as a Signer of the Declara- 
tion of Independence Samuel Huntington, whose name 
took its place in Indiana history when the county, town- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 127 

ship and city of Huntington were simultaneously or- 
ganized in 1834. 

Elisha Mills Huntington was the youngest son of 
Nathaniel and Mary (Corning) Huntington, and was 
born March 27, 1806, in Butternuts, New York, receiv- 
ing his educational training at Canandaigua. After 
locating in the Middle West he married, November 3, 
1841, Mrs. Susan Mary (Rudd) Fitzhugh, born Janu- 
ary 8, 1820. She was a daughter of Dr. Christopher 
Rudd, of Springfield, Washington County, Kentucky, 
belonging to an old Maryland family closely related to 
Charles Carroll of Carrollton. Her mother's name, 
Ann Benoist Palmer, denotes the Huguenot lineage of 
Carolina, and John C. Calhoun was a relative through 
the Caldwell family. 

To rare personal beauty, whose charm was famed 
far beyond the two states of her nativity and adoption, 
Mrs. Huntington added mental poise and equipment 
placing her abreast of her husband and in the fore- 
most ranks of Indiana's talented women until the day 
of her unhappily early death, December 3, 1853. One 
of her latest activities was heading a movement by 
which a piece of plate was presented to Robert Dale 
Owen, of New Harmony, in recognition of his services 
in protecting the rights of women under the new Con- 
stitution, adopted, whereby both sexes were placed on 
an equal footing of property ownership in Indiana. 
One dollar was set as the maximum donation, but the 
superb silver pitcher still treasured by Judge Owen's 
descendants shows that Indiana's grateful women re- 
sponded appreciatively to Mrs. Huntington's appeal. 

For ten years "Mistletoe Lodge" was a name to con- 
jure with among the country-seats bordering the Ohio 
River, none on either bank surpassing it in lavish hos- 
pitality, princely even when measured by old-school 
standards. Under the low-pitched roof-tree of the 
rambling mansion were welcomed many notable per- 
sonages. Around its mahogany both master and mis- 
tress prided themselves upon keeping alive and intensi- 



128 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

fying that neighbourly kindness between Indiana and 
Kentucky, which was the pride and glory of the two 
great sister commonwealths. 

Upon selling these broad acres in 1858 to the Swiss 
Colonization Society, Judge Huntington again took up 
his residence in Terre Haute, and the streets of a new 
town were cut through the forests of "Mistletoe 
Lodge" whose very site became lost under the side- 
w'alks and business houses of a later generation. 

Some of his children lived in Cannelton for several 
years during the sixties and seventies, held there by 
property interests in the American Cannel Coal Com- 
pany, of which his brother-in-law, Hamilton Smith, 
was long the president, but Judge Huntington came 
back no more. Declining health brought about his end, 
four years after his departure from the riverside re- 
treat of his happiest years, and he died October 26, 
1862, at Saint Paul, Minnesota, whither he had gone 
seeking strength through a change of climate. 

His masterly record on the bench was made in a wide 
field whereof Perry County was but a small fraction, 
yet to every local enterprise of Cannelton he gave that 
encouragement so essential to success, and the deepest 
interest toward furthering its advance. While his 
charges to grand juries on questions of vital import to 
the state and country at large brought him a national 
reputation second to no judge in the Union, he adorned 
his lofty position by the serene, polished dignity of his 
manner, no less than by his commanding talent as a 
jurist. 

This gracious urbanity shone even more attractively 
in the amenities of private life. His personal corre- 
spondence and frequent contributions to the press were 
vivified by a sparkling sense of humour, yet ever be- 
trayed the classic scholar. As a politician he was emi- 
nently conservative, without sympathy for extremists 
of any party. Reared a Whig, and only ceasing to be 
such through the dissolution of the national body, he 
early embraced and ever taught the same lessons of 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 129 

reverence for the law, loyalty to the Constitution, and 
love of country which animated those luminaries of 
wisdom, Webster and Clay, his personal friends as well 
as his party leaders. 

What richer legacy could his posterity ask? 



(9) 



CHAPTER XV 

MANUFACTURING ENTERPRISES AT CANNELTON 

At the time the town plat of Cannelton was raised 
and re-surveyed with additions, Thomas Brashear, 
John Briggs, James Hay and Thomas Hay were the 
only resident lot-owners aside from the American Can- 
nel Coal Company, whose officers were Stephen Fair- 
banks, President; Henry Loring, Secretary; Andrew 
T. Hall, Treasurer; Jacob Beckwith, James Boyd and 
Hamilton Smith, Directors. Jacob Beckwith owned 
726 shares of stock; Francis Y. Carlile, 250; Fair- 
banks, Loring and Company, 72 ; Perley W. Chamber- 
lain, 36; Stephen Fairbanks, 30; Hamilton Smith, 12; 
Andrew T. Hall, 10; besides an otherwise varied dis- 
tribution of the remainder. 

The general offices, which had previously been in 
Boston, were moved during 1846 to Louisville, where 
for many years afterward the director's meetings were 
held. Through the activity of James Boyd who, as 
lessee, had assumed control of operations in 1843, the 
annual production of coal had increased from a few 
thousand to almost a half million bushels; all of the 
soft, bituminous variety, semi-coking with a sulphur- 
ous parting. Practically no cannel coal was ever found 
in any paying quantity, though the original belief in 
its existence had furnished a name (Lucus a non lu- 
cendo) to the promoting company and to the city itself. 

Such extensive fuel shipments, besides those of lum- 
ber and other products in large quantities, brought 
Cannelton prominently before the notice of capitalists 
seeking investments, so men of large means in the 
East, as well as in the important river cities of the 
Middle West and South became interested in this 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 131 

locality. By the Indiana Legislature of 1847 twelve 
charters were granted for manufacturing companies 
designed to carry on business at or near Cannelton. 

As illustrating the class of men embarking upon 
these enterprises, several of the projected undertak- 
ings, with their incorporators, shall be mentioned, al- 
though only one was carried to success, — the present 
Indiana Cotton Mills, founded under the name Cannel- 
ton Cotton Mills. Of the original Indiana Cotton Mills 
the incorporators were John Helm, (Governor of 
Kentucky, 1850-1851,) Charles A. Lewis, George W. 
Meriwether, Thomas N. Lindsey and William F. Pet- 
tet, all Louisville men except the first, whose home Was 
the ancestral "Helm Place" in Hardin County, near 
Eiizabethtown. 

Louisville also provided incorporators for the Taylor 
Cotton Mills in Angereau Gray, Edward H. Hobbs, Ira 
Smith, John S. Allison, David Hunt and John McLean, 
Jr., besides Zachary Taylor (President of the United 
States, 1849-1850,) Joseph P. Taylor and William 
Taylor. The Taylors were allied by blood to the Hawes 
family, pioneer settlers of Hancock County, Kentucky, 
for whom its county seat was named Hawesville, hence 
had personal ties with the vicinity of Cannelton, but 
their factory was a structure on paper only, though 
Taylor Street in the town serves as a reminder of ''Old 
Rough and Ready's" heroism in the Mexican War, hav- 
ing then been named. 

The Ward Cotton Mills represented Ward, Ward, 
Johnson and Jones, of Louisville. Robert J, Ward, one 
of the wealthiest men in Kentucky and one whose name 
a fine steamboat bore, is still remembered best as the 
father of the renowned beauty, 'Sallie Ward.' Her 
career of social triumph was a national topic, lasting 
through four marriages and half a century of fame 
whose echoes yet linger wherever tales of fashion are 
told. 

McKnight, Anderson, Brown, Martin and Everett in- 
corporated the Perry Cotton Mills, which, like the 



132 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Ward mills, went no further than articles of incorpora- 
tion, although some year later Anderson established 
in Meade County, Kentucky, near Grahamton, a cotton 
mill which was long operated by the water power of 
Doe Run. The Cannelton Glass Manufacturing Com- 
pany had at its head Stephen M. Allen, of Boston, with 
Frederick Boyd, of Cannelton, and George A. Lewis. 
Griswold, Weisiger and Hanna, of Louisville, incor- 
porated the Cannelton Paper Mill; and the Cannelton 
Foundry represented Beckwith, Beatty and Beatty. 

Few, if any, industrial projects of the late 'forties 
could claim men of higher distinction than the incor- 
porators of the Cannelton Cotton Mills. Salmon P. 
Chase, of Ohio, Chief Justice of the United States Su- 
preme Court, 1864-1873; Charles T. James, of Rhode 
Island, United States Senator, 1852-1858; Elisha M. 
Huntington, Judge of Indiana District Federal Court, 
1848-1862 ; Randall Crawford, of New Albany ; James 
Boyd, of Cannelton ; John N. Breden, Jacob Beckwith, 
Perley W. Chamberlain, James Low, Thomas M. Smith 
and Hamilton Smith. Of these the last two were 
brothers, born in New Hampshire of old Colonial stock, 
who had come to Louisville some years earlier, and to 
Hamilton Smith is due all praise as a foster-father to 
the young community which Francis Y. Carlile had 
established. 

Full organization of the Cannelton Cotton Mill Com- 
pany was effected September 22, 1848, though its name 
soon became the Indiana Cotton Mills, and the follow- 
ing officers were then chosen: William Richardson, 
President; Alfred Thruston, Treasurer; Hamilton 
Smith, Secretary; William F. Pettet, Thomas C. Cole- 
man, James C. Ford, Lewis Ruffner, C. W. Short, Oliver 
J. Morgan, Perley Chamberlain and William McLean, 
Directors. 

The number of stockholders had been augmented by 
forty or more, so that all the names will not be given 
here, but among the more prominent of those who held 
shares were the distinguished brothers, Robert Dale 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 133 

Owen and Richard Dale Owen, of New Harmony ; the 
Right Reverend Leonidas Polk, Bishop of Louisiana, 
founder (1857) of the University of the South, Sewa- 
nee, Tennessee, and later a Confederate General; 
Maunsel White, of Louisiana, grandfather of Chief Jus- 
tice Edward D. White, of the United States Supreme 
Court from 1910 to the present; Henry Bry, also of 
Louisiana; James E. Breed, John S. Morris, Eusebius 
Hutchings, John B. Smith, Willis Ranney, S. H. Long, 
R. G. Courtney, John M. Robinson and Brother; Rob- 
inson, Peter and Carey ; all of Louisville, where the con- 
trol of the stock came ere long to be held. 

Such concentration of capital and influence seemed 
to forecast the inevitable further development of Can- 
nelton's peculiar advantages for manufacturing. With- 
in easy access were bountifully deposited nature's 
valuable gifts — coal for motive power; iron for all its 
various uses ; clay for pottery and brick ; sandstone for 
building; timber for the construction of boats to ply 
the majestic river. Encouraged by these generous re- 
sources some of the most sanguine optimists even went 
so far as to predict that the Cannelton Cotton Mill 
would prove the first movement on a large scale event- 
ually resulting in the transfer of the seat of cotton 
manufacturing from New England, no less than from 
the Mother Country, to the inexpensive power and low- 
priced food of Southern Indiana. A Utopian vision ! 

The early spring of 1849 found, nevertheless, Can- 
nelton in a period of amazing activity, everyone busy, 
newcomers arriving daily, to engage in every variety 
of occupation. Among these was naturally a journa- 
list, to lend the aid of printer's ink in giving publicity 
to such a promising settlement as the young com- 
munity. Charles Holland Mason, of New Hampshire, 
who had been in Louisville for a year or so, following 
his graduation from law school, came to Cannelton 
through the influence of Hamilton Smith, and at once 
decided to begin a journalistic career. 

On Saturday, April 28, 1849, therefore, appeared the 



134 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

initial number of Perry County's first regular news- 
paper, The Cannelton Economist, whose prospectus de- 
scribed it as "A weekly journal devoted to the estab- 
lishment of manufactures in the South and West, to 
agriculture and the cause of labour." For tv/o-and-a- 
half years, or until November 15, 1851, when its own- 
ership changed hands, the paper was characterized by 
its zeal for home institutions, the strong, dignified tone 
of its editorials, and the exceptional standard of its 
literary selections. 

General Charles T. James, of Providence, Rhode 
Island, one of the Eastern stockholders, who had al- 
ready built and equipped several successful mills, was 
placed at the head of the construction of the Cannelton 
Cotton Mills, as general manager and supervising arch- 
itect. The active architect and contractor was Alexan- 
der McGregor, another Rhode Island man, residing in 
the twin capital of Newport, where he was a civil 
engineer on the Government work at Fort Adams. 
Higher testimony to their professional skill could not 
be paid than the edifice itself, an imposing model of 
rare grace and symmetry, which has often been pro- 
nounced the handsomest factory building in the state if 
not in the Union. 

That beauty, no less than substantial utility, was 
sought by its designers is indicated by the pair of 
lofty towers which overtop by many feet the five-story 
building in whose western fagade they are the central 
feature, dominating the long front with its two-story 
wings. In the northern tower a ponderous bell of 
cathedral-like tone was ensconced before its walls were 
complete, and served as a summons to the operatives 
until 1914, when — worn thin in places where its iron 
tongue had struck for three-score years — it had to give 
place to a modern steel bell, which still signals the 
same hours from cock-crow to curfew as its predeces- 
sor so long announced. A broad flight of stone steps 
leads from the ground to the main entrance between 
the towers, and the wide doorway is crossed by a stone 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 135 

lintel on which is carved "Erected 1849." This was 
elevated to its place by Architect McGregor on Friday, 
September 7, 1849, the thirty-fifth anniversary of 
Perry County's organization. The premises lying be- 
tween Washington, Adams, Front and Fourth Streets, 
were a donation from the Coal Company, and the 
original plan called for the erection of tenements to 
face either side of an esplanade running from the 
principal entrance westward to the river, but the idea 
was abandoned after planting two rows of trees down 
the centre. A tramway was built from the mill grounds 
to the quarry in the hill east of town where at least 
two hundred men were employed ^ as stone-cutters. 
Practically as many more were occupied in the work of 
excavating for the foundations, and other operations 
upon the immediate site. 

With so much in progress along such varied lines, it 
was difficult to ascertain in advance the precise day 
when the first stone of the mill would be laid, and the 
event could not be announced in time to make it a 
formal occasion. Although the people and the labour- 
ers themselves knew not until almost the very hour 
that the deep foundations of their factory were to be 
commenced on Monday, May 21, 1849, yet when the 
first massive block of sandstone was turned down into 
its permanent resting-place, quite a concourse of atten- 
tive spectators had assembled to witness the notable 
scene. 

In behalf of the stockholders James Boyd made a 
few impromptu remarks assuring their cordial co- 
operation in the upbuilding of "this hitherto quiet, un- 
obtrusive settlement that has begun, of late, to attract 
some public notice." Alexander McGregor spoke, as the 
architect, in response, urging that no 'penny-wise and 
pound-foolish' notions should enter into the conduct of 
affairs, but that a fair and judicious use should be made 
of all means and opportunities. 

The informal programme was brought to a close 
by the Reverend John Fisher, who had come from 



136 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Boston not long before as pastor of the Unitarian 
Church, and whose eloquent address included the re- 
mark : "When we consider the many local advantages 
which the erection of a cotton factory at this place en- 
joys; its immediate neighbourhood to a splendid sand- 
stone quarry that can turn out at small cost an article 
that would decorate a palace ; also a rich and extensive 
coal-mine, both approachable within a few rods ; when 
we consider the abundant supply of water, the magnifi- 
cent scenery and salubrious climate, and especially the 
locality on the very banks of the great and beautiful 
Ohio, with every facility for transporting merchandise 
to the remotest corners of the world, who can doubt 
the speedy triumph of such a project and the ultimate 
realization of the most sanguine expectations of Can- 
nelton's warmest friends." 

"In conclusion," said he, "let me announce that the 
first stone of the Cannelton Cotton Mill is now laid, in 
the name of God, in due and ancient form, hoping that 
His All-Seeing Eye, that looketh with complacency on 
all laudable undertakings, will guide and govern our 
steps, preserving us all in health and strength during 
the erection of this edifice." 

By December the building was under roof and in the 
following April the first shipment of machinery, two 
hundred and fifty tons in weight, arrived from Taun- 
ton, Massachusetts, on the steamers Empire and Mag- 
nolia. Under contract of two years' engagement, ex- 
perienced operatives from Eastern factories were 
brought in the autumn of 1850, and on December 18 the 
steamer California, (commanded by Dwight New- 
comb,) unloaded the first shipment of cotton ever 
consigned to Cannelton, 129 bales. 

During this month some carding was begun, and 
George Beebe wove the first cloth on January 7, 1851, 
when thirty looms were started and about seventy 
hands were given work, the number being increased 
from day to day until spring found 108 cards, 372 
looms and 10,800 spindles in use, operated by 300 em- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 137 

ployes, all the machinery proving a success from the 
start. 

Ziba H. Cook, of Ballston Spa, New York, was the 
first resident general manager of the mill, arriving 
October 26, 1850, and taking up quarters in the large 
seventy-room hotel erected by the Coal Company and 
just opened to the public under the name Perry Hotel. 
It was conducted by Captain Edward Ayers, who re- 
signed command of the Louisville and Henderson 
packet Madison Belle to become keeper of the new inn. 

The building occupied the corner of Front and 
Adams Streets, and a portion of it yet stands, as the 
offices and mould-rooms of the Cannelton Sewer-Pipe 
Company, into whose possession the entire square 
passed in 1908. Several changes of proprietorship oc- 
curred before its disuse as an hotel, but it was never a 
successful venture, and it was partially remodelled for 
residence purposes by Hamilton Smith, president of the 
Coal Company, who made it his home for some twenty 
years. His eldest daughter, Martha Hall Smith, was 
there married to Alfred Hennen, Jr., of New Orleans, 
and they also maintained for several years a separate 
establishment in the big old house prior to their moving 
across the river to "Fern Cliff," a Kentucky estate 
formerly owned by Frederick W. Dohrmann, of Cin- 
cinnati. 

During 1850-51 the cotton mill company erected a 
superintendent's residence from designs furnished by 
Ziba H. Cook, who then brought his family from the 
East. Its longest tenant, however, was his successor, 
Ebenezer Wilber, who resided there almost forty years, 
or until his death in 1892, his widow (Margaret Jack- 
son) and family continuing to make it their home for 
some ten or twelve years longer. 

After a period of vacancy and neglect, it was given 
a thorough renovation by the mill people in 1912, to 
become again a home for their general manager, Lee 
Rodman, and his wife, (Margherita Welling) and in 
its prominent situation at the comer of Washington 



138 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

and Front Streets it remains the leading example of 
Cannelton's early domestic architecture. 

The Cannelton Cotton Mills, whose name was soon 
changed to the Indiana Cotton Mills, commenced opera- 
tions with complete mechanical success, but entire 
financial disappointment so far as the stockholders 
were concerned. The directors had promised them a 
dividend of ten per cent, the first year, but instead of 
this more money was required. 

Horatio Dalton Newcomb, of Louisville, treasurer of 
the company, advanced $30,000 of his own means in 
1852, and the following year leased the plant at an 
annual rental of $10,000, coming out with a personal 
profit of double that amount, over and above all ex- 
pense. At the end of a third year he bought the prop- 
erty outright, for a debt of over $200,000 against it, 
and the stock — or a controlling interest therein — was 
owned for the next thirty years by members of the 
Newcomb family. 

It came to be realized that more direct personal 
supervision of resident interested parties was the only 
means of economical commercial operations, and this 
brought into Cannelton in the early 'fifties three men 
of marked executive ability, whose influence upon the 
community's life and growth was felt in many different 
v>7ays during their generation. 

Dwight Newcomb, a brother of Horatio D. New- 
comb, came to Perry County in September, 1851, to 
look after his brother's interests in the cotton-mill, with 
no idea of permanent residence, but remained a citizen 
until his death in 1893. These brothers belonged to a 
family of twelve children, born in Franklin County, 
Massachusetts, to Dalton Newcomb and his wife, Har- 
riet Wells, both natives of the Bay State and living in 
moderate circumstances. Their education Was re- 
ceived in the common schools, and about 1840 the two 
brothers came to 'the South,' as Louisville was re- 
garded, where their Yankee shrewdness laid the 
foundation of the wealth subsequently attained. 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 139 

Dwight Newcomb clerked for five years in his elder 
brother's grocery, then engaged in steamboating for 
another five years, building in 1849 his own boat, the 
California, whose command gave him the title of Cap- 
tain for the rest of his life. He was for a time presi- 
dent of the Indiana Cotton Mills, and in 1855 leased 
the American Cannel Coal Company's mines, under the 
firm name, D. Newcomb and Company, the other part- 
ners being H. D. Nevv^comb and James C. Ford. The 
investment of $42,000 proved extremely profitable, a 
total dividend of $400,000 eventually remaining after 
repayment of the original capital. 

Captain Newcomb never married, but always lived 
in bachelor ease, taking a vacation of two or three 
months each year, and after retiring from active busi- 
ness indulged a fondness for wide travel in Europe and 
America. His first home in Cannelton was a stone resi- 
dence on the river front (now included as part of the 
Sunlight Hotel) built according to his own designs, 
with massive oaken finish and furniture, which its 
name of "Oak Hall" indicated. This, however, he grew 
tired of and abandoned for a number of years. In 1882 
he bought the conspicuous brick dwelling adjoining St. 
Luke's Episcopal Church, built in 1868 by Judge 
Charles H. Mason, and lived there until his death, July 
4, 1893. His heirs sold the residence and its furnish- 
ings to various parties, and the nickname of "Newcomb 
Place," given it by later occupants, remains the only 
memento of the Captain himself. 

Ebenezer Wilber was born, 1814, the year of Perry 
County's organization, but far away from its confines, 
— in Rensselaer County, New York, and was one of 
the four children of Samuel and Amy (Cook) Wilber, 
his mother belonging to a Rhode Island family of ex- 
tensive Colonial connections. His education was re- 
ceived in his home of Schaghticoke, with one year's 
training at Lansingburg Academy. 

After some years of clerking he made the acquaint- 
ance, in Ballston Spa, of Ziba H. Cook (not a relative) 



140 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

the first superintendent of the Indiana Cotton Mills, 
and through him came to Cannelton in 1850. He first 
undertook a course of practical experience in textile 
manufacturing in a New York factory as a prepara- 
tion for the position which he came West to fill, and the 
uniform success of his long management of the Cannel- 
ton plant proved the thoroughness of his training, down 
to the minutest detail. 

The directors of the mill, in 1858, after five years' 
appreciation of his valuable services, presented him a 
costly silver tea and coffee service with massive salver, 
suitably inscribed, and the connection between super- 
intendent, stockholders and operatives remained on 
terms of exceptional harmony until the close of his 
useful life, in 1892. He was married in 1853 to Miss 
Margaret Jackson, of Cannelton, and two sons — out 
of their five children — are yet living in Perry County. 

Hamilton Smith is a name without which Cannel- 
ton's history might never have been recorded as it 
stands, since to his admirable foresight and the power- 
ful arguments of his pen must be attributed, more than 
to anything else, that degree of public attention drawn 
to this region and leading to the material development 
of Perry County's natural resources at a vital period of 
national growth. 

He was the son of Judge Valentine Smith and Mary 
("Polly") Joy, his Wife, born September 19, 1804, in 
Durham, Strafford County, New Hampshire, in the 
homestead of pure Georgian architecture which an 
ancestral Smith had built during the year 1736, and 
which stands in excellent preservation in 1915 in un- 
broken possession of the family, the personal property 
of Griswold Smith, Esq. The Smith lineage goes back 
to Old Hough, England, and their heraldic bearings 
show the same three wheat-sheaves that are quartered 
on the shield of Captain John Smith of Virginia. John 
Winthrop, first Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, 
and his successor. Governor Thomas Dudley, both were 
direct ancestors of Hamilton Smith. 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 141 

At the age of twenty-one, after careful preparations, 
Hamilton Smith entered Dartmouth College, that al- 
ready venerable and revered institution, the Alma 
Mater of Daniel Webster, Rufus Choate, Salmon P. 
Chase and many other truly great Americans. There 
he won Phi Beta Kappa honours and was graduated 
summa cum laude with the class of 1829. During a 
part of these years Chase was a fellow-student, and a 
friendship there grew up between the two young men 
which lasted under conditions of unusual warmth and 
intimacy until the death of the distinguished Chief 
Justice. 

Three years later, in 1832, after reading law in the 
Washington offices of William Wirt and Levi Wood- 
bury, young Smith came to Louisville and entered upon 
the practice of his chosen profession, following it for 
fifteen years with notable success. During the dis- 
turbed financial conditions of the 'thirties his keen 
judgment as the representative of sundry large Eastern 
bankers and merchants contributed to the accumula- 
tion of what was then regarded as a handsome fortune. 
In at least one year his practice amounted to over 
$30,000 — certainly exceptional at the time, and prob- 
ably the largest of any attorney then in the West. 

His love for the beautiful in nature and art led to the 
creation of an ideal country estate, "Villula," on the 
Bardstown pike a few miles from the city, and a show- 
place among Louisville's suburban homes even long 
afterward when owned by the Trabue family, of 
Hawesville. Hither he brought his first wife, Martha 
Hall, of Bellows Falls, Vermont, but she died in 1845, 
after bearing him seven children, of whom but two 
attained maturity, — Hamilton, Jr., and Martha Hall 
(Mrs. Alfred Hennen) both deceased. 

In 1846 he was again married, to Louise Rudd, 
younger sister to the wife of Judge Huntington, of 
Indiana, a favourite in Louisville's choicest circles, 
where her beauty and accomplishments made her an ac- 
knowledged belle, ranking alongside her life-time 



142 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

friend, the famous Sallie Ward. Of this union eight 
children were the fruit, some of whom were born in 
Cannelton, where several are buried in Cliff Cemetery, 
beside their parents in the family tomb. 

In 1847 Mr. Smith commenced a series of articles in 
the Louisville Journal (then edited by George D. Pren- 
tice) clearly showing the advantages in power of the 
extensive Western coal-fields over the Eastern water- 
falls, and the necessary profits which must accrue from 
building up manufactories in the Ohio and Mississippi 
Valleys, near to coal and to cotton, and on the great 
natural highways of the continent. Similar contribu- 
tions to De Bow's Commercial Review, Hunt's Western 
Magazine, the National Intelligencer and other import- 
ant periodicals had their effect, of whose results the 
present generation are yet the beneficiaries. 

It was the desire of practically demonstrating the 
truth of these arguments and inaugurating a new in- 
dustry that promised so much for the future of the 
West and the South, which led public-spirited men of 
Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi to organ- 
ize the company for building the Cannelton Cotton 
Mills. 

Hamilton Smith was among the foremost of these, 
one of the heaviest investors, and in the unexpected 
financial difficulties which grew out of the novelty of 
the enterprise, with other causes, a large part of his 
private fortune was sunk beyond redemption in the 
sacrifice sale of the mill to the Newcomb family. An- 
other instance of the ill-luck proverbially attending the 
originators of daring and untried ventures. 

In December, 1851, he removed with his family to 
Cannelton, as president of both the cotton-mill and 
coal companies, taking up his residence in the river 
wing of the original hotel building at Front and Adams 
Streets, which was remodelled for his occupancy and 
where he lived for the next twenty-two years. Sever- 
ing his connection with the American Cannel Coal 
Company, in 1873, he then removed to Washington, but 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 143 

had been there less than two years when — on February 
8, 1875 — he died suddenly of heart disease. Death came 
so swiftly that no words were spoken to his family, nor 
any recognition made by him of the loved ones around. 
Unconsciousness took instant possession, and the bril- 
liant light of his life was quenched in darkness without 
the faintest flicker such as usually foretells the 
approaching moment of dissolution. 

For a score of years Louise Rudd Smith stood as 
Cannelton's highest type of devoted wife and mother, 

"A perfect woman, nobly planned 
To warn, to comfort and command," 

making her house the abode of culture and refinement 
where, in addition to every material luxury, rare art 
treasures and a library numbered in the thousands, 
there was always the greater attraction of family af- 
fection unbroken and unalloyed, showing it in the 
truest sense a home. 

Of unfailing kindness and consideration to those 
outside her immediate circle, in works of charity and 
piety she was a shining example to the community, her 
purest joy being to uplift in God's praise before His 
altar her superb soprano voice, of exceptional range 
and finished cultivation. 

Cannelton was in her husband's thoughts to the last, 
and within the month of his demise he was actively 
negotiating plans toward its further advancement, 
looking to his own return thither, which would prob- 
ably have been effected within a reasonable time had 
his life been spared. 

But when he came back it was in the silence of death, 
to depart no more. His obsequies were conducted with 
solemn simplicity in the sable-draped St. Luke's 
Church on March 9, 1875. The day was intensely cold, 
yet the church was crowded and the funeral procession 
of unequalled length. A pathetic feature was the 
empty phaeton in which he had driven for many years, 
drawn by his favourite horse, "Preacher," which one 



144 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

of his devoted former employes led directly behind the 
hearse, 

"As when the warrior dieth * * * They 
After him lead his masterless steed." 

Through the snow-clad streets and up the winding 
road to Cliff Cemetery, amid tolling bells from every 
steeple in Cannelton, the long cortege took its way to 
the spot selected years before for his last resting place, 
where all that was mortal of Hamilton Smith was laid, 
to sleep the sleep that knows no waking, beneath the 
whispering boughs of two immemorial oaks that have 
long kept their watch and ward far above the rippling 
waters of the Beautiful River he loved so well. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS AT CANNELTON. 

While the Methodists were the earliest religious 
body organized in Cannelton, the first edifice erected 
for public worship was by the Unitarians about 1845, 
and the New England type of Colonial meeting-house 
was faithfully reproduced in the rectangular frame 
building, with severely square belfry, which still stands 
after seventy years of use, at the southeast corner of 
Third and Washington streets, one of the few original 
landmarks of pioneer Cannelton. Its actual history, 
however, is as St. Luke's Episcopal Church, which it 
became in the middle 'fifties, as Unitarianism was but 
short lived in Perry County. 

James Boyd, whose liberality had provided the first 
schoolhouse for the village, was also one prime mover 
in this pioneer church work, being the chief contribu- 
tor and a trustee, together with Messrs. Fairbanks 
and Frothingham, of Boston, in its ownership. The 
site was a donation from the Coal Company, who also 
gave for parsonage purposes a corresponding lot on 
the corner of Washington and Fourth streets, which 
was never thus used, though the ground was held by 
the church for over fifty years. 

The Rev. John Fisher was the first and only resi- 
dent pastor of the Unitarian belief, as the denomina- 
tion was not of rapid growth among the incoming set- 
tlers. With a commendably broad-minded spirit, the 
deed of gift provided for the use of the building by 
any Christian minister for Divine Worship, and many 
various services were held from time to time within 
its walls, besides different public meetings, lectures, 

(10) 



146 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

etc., notices of which were printed in The Economist 
as to be held *at early candle-light.' 

Captain John James may be regarded as father of 
the Presbyterian society, which was organized early 
in the 'fifties, though the congregation endured as such 
for only a few years. He was born December 28, 1808, 
in South Wales, the eldest son of James and Catherine 
(Howell) James, of old Welsh stock, and received a 
liberal education in that language as well as English, 
his father being a prosperous woolen manufacturer. 
He married Margaret Jones, also of Wales, who bore 
him ten children, several of whom lived with their 
parents in Cannelton until the family removed about 
1869 to "Corn Island," near Grandview, and the line 
is now one of extensive connections in Spencer County. 

The American Cannel Coal Company gave to the 
Presbyterians a lot at the northeast corner of Fourth 
and Adams streets, on which a frame church thirty- 
six by forty feet was built, and an adjoining lot run- 
ning to Fifth street became the manse. The frame 
residence is yet standing and is the present home of 
Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Curtis Minor (Marguerite Con- 
way). The Rev. George F. Whitworth was the first 
pastor, serving as such for several years, but the or- 
ganization lapsed four or five years afterwards and 
has never been renewed. The church edifice was used 
as a grammar department of the public schools in 
1861-62, and following the War Between the States the 
building and lot were granted to the African Method- 
ists, who maintained regular services there for some 
thirty years, until an exchange of property was made 
in 1907, and their buildings were removed to Fourth 
near Congress street. 

Mrs. Whitworth, the Presbyterian dominie's wife, 
was a woman of superior culture, and in 1849-50 
taught a select school giving excellent satisfaction. 
For a term of eleven weeks the rates were: Primary, 
$3 ; Junior, $5 ; Senior, $6 ; Piano Music, $10 ; Use of 
Instrument, $2 ; Needlework, as arranged. By degrees 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 147 

her institution became exclusively a girls' school, 
though in the beginning boys were received. 

The Rev. David Boyer, who succeeded Mr. Whit- 
worth as pastor, continued the school for a time, with 
Miss Julia Boyer as his assistant. In 1851 they taught 
the first session in the new stone public school building 
erected on the hillside east of Eighth street. The Coal 
Company gave the lot and the Cotton Mill a subscrip- 
tion of $600. This location was unsuitable and in- 
convenient, and it was used for only four years, then 
sold to private parties and for fifty years occupied as a 
residence, with surrounding vineyards, owned by Con- 
rad Damm. In 1908 it became the property of Mr. 
and Mrs. Charles T. Miller (Lulu Gregory), whose 
modern residence "Hill Crest" utilizes as a foundation 
part of the original structure's massive rock walls. 

The Baptists, elsewhere in Perry County, notable 
for their continuity of organized existence, seem to 
have met with little success in forming a society in 
Cannelton, and the small congregation among v/hose 
most active members were Willard Claflin, Terence 
Wood and W. H. Bicknell disbanded after only a few 
years of life in the 'fifties. Not until a generation 
later was any distinct effort made to resume the work, 
and the society now existing as "The First Baptist 
Church of Cannelton" was independently organized 
about 1893, when its present church was built with 
the Rev. J. B. Solomon, of Hawesville, as its first 
pastor; Henderson W. Huff and Lewis Yates, the first 
trustees, chosen June 11, 1893. 

On a more permanently successful basis, however, 
was the St. John's German Evangelical Association 
formed December 7, 1854, among its charter member- 
ship appearing family names still represented in the 
third generation upon its register. William Lehmann, 

Albert Lehmann, L Lehmann, Martin Bruck, Peter 

Weber, George Kraus, Gustave Lupp, Jacob Moog, 
Gottlieb Vogel, Henry Kolb, Christian Rodermund, 
Philip Fuchs, Christian Schnitzler, Ferdinand Kieser 



148 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

and others had been holding irregular meetings before 
this for some time, and the organization was effected 
by the members themselves who held to the faith, 
without the leadership of a minister. At the north- 
west corner of Taylor and Seventh streets a lot was 
secured and a frame church built in 1855, something 
like a year before the first resident pastor, the Rev. 
■ Ebling, took charge. The work has been prose- 
cuted from the first with unflagging energy and now 
represents what is perhaps Cannelton's most united 
and vigourous parochial organization. The high meas- 
ure of material success attained is shown in the pres- 
ent handsome brick church, with pipe organ and 
other complete equipment, and the adjoining modern 
parsonage. Both men and women have spared nothing 
of personal sacrifice or active labour which could pos- 
sibly contribute to the result which has been attained. 

About the same time a German Methodist society 
v/as organized in co-operation with the missionary 
work which the Rev. Conrad Muth had inaugurated at 
German Ridge. Among its earliest class members 
were the families of Henry Vogel, Bennett Wippach, 
John Johann and Philip Rau, Jr. The latter's father, 
Philip Rau, Sr., who afterwards joined the son in 
Perry County, was also an active supporter of the 
congregation during his unusually long life, and was 
beyond question the county's oldest citizen when he 
died in March, 1893, at the age of 103 years, five 
months and twenty-seven days. He was born at 
Wuesseck, in the Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, and his 
great-grandsons keep his memory alive in Cannelton. 

The Rev. Heitmyer was the first pastor and 

in 1855 a frame church was erected on the southeast 
corner of Taylor and Seventh streets, adjoining which 
a parsonage was afterward built. The work was 
maintained continuously until 1914, when the de- 
creased number of members familiar with the German 
language led to an experimental consolidation with 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 149 

the English-speaking Methodists, who had built their 
own frame church in Fifth street, between Taylor and 
Congress, during the middle 'fifties, the decade of Can- 
nelton's greatest activity in every line, spiritual no 
less than temporal. 

It is the intention, as developments materialize, in 
due time to effect a formal union and erect a new 
house of worship befitting the importance of the Meth- 
odism as a factor in the community. 

Among the numerous English families whom the 
Cotton Mill and other commercial interests had 
brought into Cannelton it might naturally be expected 
that a large proportion were members of the Estab- 
lished Church, and in their adopted land would wish 
the same sacred offices — kept up through lineal descent 
in its American branch, the Episcopal Church, whose 
Book of Common Prayer distinctly declares that "this 
Church is far from intending to depart from the 
Church of England in any essential point of doctrine, 
discipline or worship; or further than local circum- 
stances require." Samuel T. Piatt, Edward Dale, 
James Lees, John Sanderson, John Gordon, Thomas 
Hay, Robert Payne and Edmund Sharpies were among 
the immigrant churchmen and the Episcopalians of 
American birth included the Carlile, Huckeby, Smith, 
Talbot, Brazee, Hubbs, Wilber and Wales families. 

The earliest service of the historic Church of Wash- 
ington, Franklin and so many other distinguished 
Colonial Americans recorded as held in Cannelton was 
on August 3, 1851, when the Right Reverend Benjamin 
Bosworth Smith, Bishop of Kentucky, officiated in the 
Unitarian Church. The Prayer Book offices set forth 
for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity were then heard 
for the first time within the walls v/here they have 
since been read for well nigh three-score years. 

Bishop Smith, a man of apostolic fervour and 
scholarly erudition, who lived to attain patriarchal age 
and was for many years Primate (Presiding Bishop) 
of the American Church, possessed the broadest mis- 



150 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

sionary spirit yet could not continue regular work out- 
side the canonical bounds of his own diocese, so 
through the efforts of Judge Ballard Smith, who repre- 
sented Perry County in the Legislature of 1855, Can- 
nelton as a field for labour was brought before the 
notice of the Right Reverend George Upfold, D. D., 
First Bishop of the Diocese of Indiana (Indianapolis). 
He visited the place June 17, 1855, and again in the 
Unitarian Church led Divine Worship as first actual 
shepherd of the little Episcopalian flock in Cannelton. 

Verily the "Mother Church" for Christians of every 
creed in Cannelton is the time-worn structure once 
known by no other name than "The Church," and just 
where the Roman Catholics had organized their local 
society several years earlier. Bishop Upfold organized 
in 1857 St. Luke's Parish of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church. On the First Sunday in Advent, December 2, 
1860, he administered the apostolic rite of Confirma- 
tion to ten candidates, prepared by the Rev. William 
Louis Githens, who had become the first resident rector 
during that year. Of this original class Mrs. Christina 
(Piatt) Tichenor is the only survivor (1915), having 
remained a communicant of the parish for fifty-four 
years. 

The insufficient school facilities of Cannelton in 1855 
were painfully evident from the average attendance 
recorded of only 240 pupils out of 720 enumerated as 
of school age, a distressing lack of interest largely due 
to the scattered buildings and the poor sidewalks lead- 
ing toward them. A lot was given, however, in 1854, 
by the Coal Company, the half-block now the City 
Park, between Sixth, Seventh, Clay and Lawrence 
streets. Its value was $1,000, and the School Board 
appropriated $800 toward a new building, which Wil- 
liam P. Beacon took the contract to erect, at $8 per 
thousand bricks and $2.75 per perch for the stone 
work. His contract failed, but the building was com- 
pleted in 1856 by contractors Leonard and Johnson. 

Among various teachers, meanwhile, had been the 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 151 



Rev. John Laverty, George Crehore, the Rev. S- 



Hart, Jerome Spillman, Misses Sarah Cotton, Mary- 
Anne James, Sarah Kolb and Anna Dow, utilizing such 
rooms as were here and there available. Henry N. 
Wales, with Misses Anna Dow and Isabelle McKinley 
took charge of the town schools during the session of 
1856-57, with an enrollment of 235, but an average 
attendance of only 110. The new brick was finished 
but unfurnished at this time, yet despite the want of 
equipment, Sumner Clark and Miss Sarah J. Mason 
conducted an excellent school in its upper rooms in 
1857-58, Allen Milton Ferguson teaching the spring 
term with them. The Rev. Mr. Laverty, Mr. Wales, 
Misses Kolb, Gest and Dow were then teaching for 
the town. 

The same year witnessed the founding of the most 
distinctively high-class educational movement ever 
undertaken in Cannelton, Franklin Institute, of col- 
legiate character, whose influence was perceptible for 
many years although the breaking out of the War Be- 
tween the States caused its career to be unexpectedly 
brief. 

As principal, the Institute was fortunate in having 
Professor Paul Schuster, A.M., born March 20, 1825, 
in the historic city of Strasburg, Alsace-Lorraine. He 
was educated in Belgium at one of the Jesuit colleges, 
and — with neither criticism nor comment upon the 
ethical system of that body — it was through the train- 
ing there received during his novitiate that he came to 
America at the age of twenty-four, a fluent master of 
seven languages, Greek, Latin, French, English, Span- 
ish, Italian and German. 

Soon after reaching Bardstown, Kentucky, where 
the Jesuits maintained a school noted in its day, he 
decided that America offered a wide field for individual 
liberty of development, and in 1849 was released from 
the temporary vows of a postulant to enter upon his 
personal career as an educator. 

Cincinnati's large foreign element appealed to his 



152 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

cosmopolitanism, and his linguistic attainments quick- 
ly gained for the young scholar that position he was 
best qualified to fill, the chair of Ancient and Modern 
Languages in some of the leading seminaries, both 
male and female. From thence the impetus of the 
Swiss Colonization Society in 1858 brought him into 
Perry County and to Cannelton. 

But few if any among institutions of Indiana at the 
time offered a higher standard of instruction than 
Franklin Institute, whose object — as set forth in its 
original prospectus — was "to prepare and enable stu- 
dents to enter the Senior department of Harvard or 
Yale, or of any of the prominent Southern Universi- 
ties." 

"While the Ancient and Modern Tongues, Mathe- 
matics, Philosophy and the Natural Sciences are effi- 
ciently taught," the prospectus read, "more than ordi- 
nary attention is paid to the English, French and Ger- 
man Languages and Literature, Elocution and the Art 
of Composition. The most ample provision is made 
in the younger classes for laying the foundations of 
knowledge sound and strong; while, it is confidently 
believed, few institutions afford to the higher order of 
students greater facilities for thorough acquaintance 
with the finished Models of Literature — ^the sources of 
History — the principles of writing and speaking the 
English and also the French and German languages — 
the nature and rules of legitimate argument — the 
proofs of Revelation — the life springs of good taste 
and good conduct. 

"Yet the leading and prominent object of the 
Tuitionary System is to impart the general intellectual 
culture and activity which alone deserves the name of 
Education and enable the possessor to secure that 
higher inprovement which no school can bestow. With 
a view to this aim at a thorough education, manners 
and personal habits shall be the objects of unceasing 
vigilance and care." 

The attitude toward co-education displayed an im- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 153 

partiality distinctly ahead of a generation that had 
not yet come to recognize woman's rightful place in a 
complete scheme of civilization, since the pamphlet 
continued : "The experience of several years passed 
in learning and teaching has convinced the Principal 
that the meeting of both girls and boys in the same 
schoolroom while contributing, on the one side, to 
soften and refine the buoyant spirits of ardent youths, 
to stimulate their noblest ambition to the utmost exer- 
tion of all their mental faculties, and to restrain them 
continually within the strictest limits of gentlemanly 
deportment; has, on the other side, a no less effective 
tendency to promote and exalt in young girls those 
delicate feelings and enlightened sentiments which de- 
velop so spontaneously their natural graces and 
virtues; qualifying both sexes at the same time to 
move with ease, propriety and a benignant influence in 
any sphere of life which it may be their destiny to 
occupy." 

"The teaching of the Gospel," a concluding para- 
graph declared, "will be respected and predicated as 
the only rule of conduct for members of either Chris- 
tian Society or the Human Family at large; but all 
Sectarian bias, all spirit of proselytism is emphatically 
repudiated." 

For each five months term the tuition rates ranged 
from $20 in the collegiate department, through $15 in 
the academic, down to $12.50 in the primary. Ancient 
Languages were included in the highest grade, but an 
extra $5 was the charge for French, German, Spanish 
or Italian. Nonresident pupils were offered board "in 
some of the most respectable families of Cannelton at 
a cost not to exceed, under any circumstances, $3 per 
week." 

A promise was made that within a year the Prin- 
cipal would receive boarders in his own family at 
cheaper rates, Professor Schuster having married, 
September 8, 1858, Amanda, daughter of Henry P. and 
Mary (Aikens) Brazee, whose homestead "Mulberry 



154 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Park" was beside the Ohio River a mile and a half 
below Cannelton. 

This wedding was one among many functions of 
elegant hospitality which the old mansion witnessed 
in its prime, and was especially remembered because 
a supposed supernatural apparition, that for years 
afterward was reputed to haunt the Cannelton and 
Tell City river road, had been seen for the first time 
by some of the reception guests driving from Cannel- 
ton. The imaginary spectre was attributed to some 
phosphorescent gaseous vapour overhanging a low- 
lying stretch of road. What ever its nature, it was 
seen by too many responsible parties for its existence 
to be flatly denied. 

The plan for a boarding school, however, was not 
carried out. Professor Schuster returning some two 
years later to Cincinnati where in elevating pursuits 
was spent the remainder of his earthly life, ending 
October 9, 1905. While national circumstances for- 
bade the anticipated destiny of Franklin Institute, the 
lofty ideals of its founder find fulfilment today in one 
of Cincinnati's noblest institutions, the Schuster 
School of Expression, in Kemper Lane, Walnut Hills, 
where stands an edifice whose classic beauty but re- 
flects the inspiring personality of its head, Helen Merci 
Schuster (Mrs. William Warren Martin), the youngest 
child of Paul and Amanda (Brazee) Schuster. Rank- 
ing among the Queen City's most gifted dramatic read- 
ers, Mrs. Schuster-Martin's temperamental enthusiasm 
gives to her instruction a magnetic quality whose value 
to pupils is truly inestimable. 

Professor Paul Schuster's assistant during the first 
year of Franklin Institute was J. W. Chaddock, and in 
the summer of 1859 he obtained the services of a 
young man just graduated from Genesee College (now 
Syracuse University) , Thomas James de la Hunt, vale- 
dictorian of his class and also the winner of first 
honours in oratory. 

His birthplace had been the golden vale of Tipper- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 155 

ary, Ireland, though of French parentage, the de la 
Hunt lineage showing a Huguenot family traced back 
to the city of Nancy in Lorraine in the Sixteenth Cen- 
tury. On the maternal line, however, appear such 
typically Irish names as FitzGerald and Plunkett, so 
the two strains of blood combined in an ardently 
vivacious temperament which adopted with patriotic 
enthusiasm America, Indiana and Perry County as a 
chosen home for the remainder of his too-brief life. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

SECOND RELOCATION OF COUNTY-SEAT. 

In the Cannelton Reporter for Saturday, January 
12, 1856, appeared a lengthy editorial in humourous 
vein headed "A Trip to Rome and Back," which was 
the opening gun in a well-planned campaign looking 
toward a second re-location of the county seat. The 
discomforts of the frequent journeys which all tax- 
payers and citizens were called on to make to a point 
of such inconvenient access as Rome were dwelt upon 
and a "straw vote" was taken at the top of the lofty 
ridge from whence Troy Township travelers caught 
their first glimpse of the big ball then surmounting the 
cupola of the old court-house. 

When counted, the pretended vote was announced. 
"In favour of removing the county seat, including the 
entire town of Rome (except the jail) to Cannelton, 
12. Opposed to the aforesaid movement, 00." Henry 
P. Brazee, Jr., a clever young resident attorney of 
Cannelton, fresh from the lap of his Alma Mater, 
Indiana University, thereupon burst into classic para- 
phrase : 

"While stands the court-house Rome shall stand. 
When falls the court-house Rome shall fall. 
And when Rome falls — Look out for a general scam- 
pering of office-holders." 

During January and February active steps were 
taken by Cannelton and petitions were circulated all 
over the county prefatory to the March meeting of the 
County Commissioners in whom the general law of 
March, 1855, had vested the conditional power of re- 
locating county seats. Prior to that time a special 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 157 

enactment had been necessary, with special commis- 
sioners. 

On March 3, 1856, a formal petition, signed by some 
1,350 legal voters praying for the re-location of the 
county seat at Cannelton, with a deposit of fifty dol- 
lars for employment of an architect to prepare plans, 
specifications and estimates for new county buildings, 
was duly presented by Charles H. Mason of the Board 
consisting of Samuel K. Groves, William Hatfield and 
Wyatt C. Sampson. 

After hearing all facts in the case and enduring 
more or less patiently a heated discussion between the 
advocates and opponents of the project, the Board 
finally refused to grant the petition, taking ground 
that the county voters numbered 2,100 and hence the 
required two-thirds had not affixed their signatures. 
This decision of the Board was by Hatfield and Groves, 
overruling Sampson, who entered his dissent as pro- 
testing that the voting population could not exceed 
1,800, as the largest vote ever polled in Perry County 
had been only 1,572, at the election of October, 1854, in 
a time of intense political excitement. He, therefore, 
held that the petition had more than a sufficiency of 
signatures to carry it. 

It was shown in Cannelton's favour that out of these 
1,572 votes 1,019 had been cast in precincts west of an 
imaginary line bisecting the county north and south, 
leaving only 553 in the eastern, or Rome's half of the 
county. Cannelton was practically as near this merid- 
ian as Rome and based her claim on business conveni- 
ence rather than geographical position, since the actual 
centre of the county would have to be found in the 
forest some few miles west of Leopold, a site wholly 
beyond the bounds of serious consideration. 

By curious paradox, Troy, which had herself lost the 
county seat to Rome in 1818, now fought vigourously 
to retain it there, against removing it to Cannelton, 
sixteen miles nearer. Such action was explained by a 
sentiment of revenge following the defeated scheme 



158 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

for creating a new county out of portions of Perry and 
Spencer with Troy as its logical centre, which had been 
voted down in 1852 by a majority which the Trojans 
attributed largely to Cannelton. 

Rome's opposition was anticipated from the first, no 
one expecting her citizens to yield voluntarily their 
pecuniary advantages of residence at the seat of office, 
but the objections of Troy to a measure calculated to 
advance her own local interest could not be viewed 
otherwise than as an exhibition of vindictive antagon- 
ism, and bitter denunciations were publicly exchanged 
in course of the contest. An appeal to the Common 
Pleas Court was taken but not argued, wiser heads 
concluding that the subject should remain for a time 
in abeyance. 

During the spring of 1858 another re-location peti- 
tion was circulated, to which 1451 signatures were ob- 
tained, a number greater than two-thirds of the voters 
even assuming as correct the exaggerated basis of 
2,100 fixed by the Commissioners at the former at- 
tempt, and an overwhelming majority out of the 1,793 
votes cast by Perry County in the presidential election 
of 1856. 

The American Cannel Coal Company pledged a 
donation of sufficient ground for the erection of all 
buildings required, and, looking thereto, prayed the 
vacating of certain portions of Richardson (Eighth) 
street and Seventh street in Cannelton, by a petition 
presented June 7 to the Board of Commissioners — 
William Hatfield, William Elder and James Hardin — at 
their regular session in Rome. But William S. Lamb 
— a citizen of Rome — objected to granting this peti- 
tion — concerning Cannelton exclusively — and although 
no grounds for objection were alleged the Board held 
themselves technically bound by the letter of the law 
and refused to vacate the streets. 

Such action made it plain that recourse must be had 
to higher power outside the county if Cannelton hoped 
for a fair hearing, and the next step was planned with 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 159 

a diplomacy purchased through the experience of de- 
feat. Whatever arbitrary decisions the Commission- 
ers might hand down as a Board they could not hope 
to silence the voice of the people at a general election, 
so Hamilton Smith, president of the American Cannel 
Coal Company, a man of superior foresight, was nomi- 
nated for Representative, Saturday, June 12, 1858, by 
the Democratic county convention held at Alexander 
Portwood's in Anderson Township. The Republicans 
placed no candidate in nomination, regarding local 
issues as paramount to partisanship, but Dr. George 
Burton Thompson, one of Rome's lifelong Democrats, 
came out in opposition to Mr. Smith, showing that the 
fight was to the death with the citizens of his town. 

At the September meeting of the Commissioners, 
Robert Boyd, of Cannelton, owning property adjacent 
to the streets asked to be vacated, entered through his 
attorney, Joshua B. Huckeby, a protest against the 
refusal of the Board in June. William Hatfield was 
absent on account of illness, and the other two mem- 
bers, James Hardin and William Elder, quibbled over 
the alleged technicality that Boyd had not been a 
signer to the original petition praying vacation of the 
public streets. Hardin held this to be essential but 
Elder differed materially from him, so there was no 
alternative but to pass the whole matter until the next 
meeting of the Board in December. The Rome people 
publicly declared their insistence upon every right the 
law could give them, and that the county seat should 
never be removed save under strictest statutory in- 
terpretation. 

While Cannelton's astute politicians persistently an- 
nounced that re-location was not a figure in the autumn 
campaign, it was nevertheless a deeply underlying 
issue and was universally recognized as such. For 
reasons best known to himself and his followers, 
Doctor Thompson withdrew from the canvass one 
week before election day, so on October 12, Hamilton 
Smith received 1,222 out of 1,694 ballots that were 



160 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

cast. John C. Shoemaker's majority for joint-Senator 
was 219 over his opponent, David T. Laird, of Rock- 
port. 

Governor Willard having called a special session of 
General Assembly for consideration of important mat- 
ters, the Legislature convened on November 20. On 
Monday, December 13, Hamilton Smith introduced 
House Bill No. 26, supplementary to Act approved 
March 2, 1855, providing for re-location of county 
seats, public highways, etc. His bill provided for re- 
location of county seats where lands and court-houses 
had been donated and petitions filed. 

In his speech he explained that the measure, while 
in form of a general law, was for a specific purpose 
affecting Perry County only and was virtually an 
emergency case. He proceeded to set forth how dur- 
ing the year the large number of foreign immigrants 
settling in the county had built up a new community, 
so that the conveyances of property had multiplied to 
an extraordinary degree. Within a few months the 
examination and recording of some thirteen or four- 
teen hundred deeds to lots in Tell City alone would 
become necessary, and with the county seat at a dis- 
tance of twenty miles from the centre of population the 
almost unanimous wish of the people favoured re- 
location of the court-house at Cannelton. More than 
two-thirds of the voters had thus petitioned, but since 
existing laws would not permit such a change he be- 
sought all reasonable expedition in passing the bill as 
introduced. After reference to a committee of five the 
bill was reported favourably December 22, passed and 
signed by Governor Willard, the news reaching Cannel- 
ton on Christmas Eve. 

A public meeting was held Monday evening, De- 
cember 26, in the brick schoolhouse in Sixth Street, 
Joshua B. Huckeby being chosen chairman and Paul 
Schuster, secretary. An address by Hamilton Smith 
then presented the exact status of the situation. 
Through his efforts and the special exertions of his 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 161 

brother, Judge Ballard Smith, the bill, which had 
passed the Legislature, made it necessary for the Can- 
nelton people to build fire-proof offices, a good jail, and 
*to fit up the contemplated court-house for the purpose.' 
On behalf of the Coal Company he agreed to erect four 
fire-proof offices in exchange for a former donation 
made for the purpose of facilitating re-location, a 
transaction already foreseen and provided for by the 
enactment. For building the jail and repairing the in- 
tended court-house the act required a cash deposit of 
$3,500 in the hands of the County Treasurer before 
the next regular meeting of the Commissioners. It, 
therefore, behooved the citizens to busy themselves 
without delay in raising this amount, toward which 
end committees were appointed for each of the six 
wards, their instructions being to deposit the money 
with the County Treasurer in sums of $100 as fast as 
collected. 

Subscriptions at first came in slowly and an appar- 
ent indifference seemed to exist among sundry citizens 
at the very moment when the coveted prize was within 
their grasp. A delegation from Rome, William S. 
Lamb, George Burton Thompson and George Perry 
De Weese, betook themselves to Indianapolis for 
strenuous lobby work before the regular session of the 
Legislature. Their scheme was to procure amend- 
ments to the act, raising the cash donation to $6,000 
and requiring a revision of all signatures on the peti- 
tion. Furthermore, they re-opened the once-tried 
question of organizing a new county, which, if done, 
would forever settle adversely any claim of Cannelton 
for the court-house by placing it on the very boundary 
line between the old and new counties. Some influ- 
ential aid was enlisted in this desperate move to defeat 
re-location, and to the women of Cannelton must be 
accredited the final checkmate ensuring victory. 

Signed "Many Ladies" a call was published for a 
meeting at the home of Mrs. Paul Schuster (Amanda 
Brazee) on Monday, January 17, 1859, for discussing 

(11) 



162 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

plans to raise funds toward the aid of re-location, and 
the result was a three days' Fair, held January 24, 25 
and 26 in Mozart Hall. This entertainment was typical 
of many in its period. Monday evening, a lottery with 
many valuable prizes, a post-office, a wheel of fortune 
revealing the future, fancy tables for needlework, ice 
cream and confectionery, besides an elaborate supper 
of substantials and delicacies. Tuesday evening the 
Fair continued, with a special concert programme at 
nine o'clock, and a noted professional fortune-teller, 
Madame L'Estrange. On Wednesday night a ball, with 
supper, brought the series to a gay climax and the net 
result of $610.47 was turned over to the re-location 
fund, with feminine compliments. Spurred to final 
effort, the balance of the amount was raised by the 
men inside a fortnight. 

Rome's opposition, however, had not spent itself. 
On Monday, March 8, 1859, the Cannelton committee, 
John James Key, William P. Beacon and Joseph M. 
Gest, made the final payment to the County Treasurer, 
who certified the fact before the Commissioners then 
in regular session. Judge Ballard Smith then moved 
that bids for building jail and re-modeling court-house 
be opened for consideration, which was assented to by 
the Board although actively contested by Rome's coun- 
sel, James C. Veatch, of Rockport. While the Com- 
missioners' action virtually settled, so far as in their 
power, the legality of the re-location enactment, an 
appeal was taken by the opposition, Elijah B. Huckeby 
and George P. De Weese giving bond in the sum of 
$6,000, with ample security, to prosecute the appeal 
before the May Circuit Court. Thus again, was the 
will of the majority thwarted for a time by a few 
stubbornly unyielding opponents holding with bull-dog 
tenacity to their cause. 

At this term Judge Ballard Smith, whom his con- 
temporaries pronounced one of the most polished and 
brilliant men ever occupying the bench of the Third 
Circuit, but who had declined to stand for re-election,. 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 163 

was succeeded by Judge M. F. Burke, of Daviess 
County. Of Irish parentage, he possessed many sterl- 
ing qualities of his race, a ready mind, abundant re- 
source, free and impetuous eloquence. His promptness 
of decision received favourable comment in all cases 
during his short term of service, and the most import- 
ant point adjudicated in the first term he held in Perry 
County was the re-location issue. The appeal of 
Elijah B. Huckeby et al vs. Ballard Smith et al, was 
dismissed, the court ruling that no appeal might be 
taken from the interlocutory action of the Commis- 
sioners, thus officially closing an incident most memor- 
able. 

In June contracts were let, to William P. Beacon for 
building the jail at a cost of $2,000, and to William 
McKinley, Sr., for re-modeling the school-house at 
$435 ; Eben Dow having prepared the plans at a fee of 
$10; the Coal Company making their own arrange- 
ments for the stone office building. These operations 
consumed the summer and in the autumn Charles H. 
Mason, — Joseph M. Gest superintending work — as an 
appointed committee, purchased all furniture and 
fittings. 

They, with others, appeared December 7, in Rome, 
before the Commissioners in session, James Hardin, 
Joseph Cassidy and Michael Dusch, filing their detailed 
report which showed full compliance with every re- 
quirement of the act. Upon motion of Ballard Smith, 
the Board passed an order directing immediate removal 
of the records to Cannelton and appointing William P. 
Beacon to superintend the same. Some slight delay 
occurred through petition from Rome to have imme- 
diate transfer of the county property there to a board 
of seminary trustees, Elijah B. Huckeby, John C. 
Shoemaker and Job Hatfield, but the Commissioners 
deferred such action until their March session, holding 
that the transfer could not legally be made until the 
county seat was removed cle facto. 

Daniel L. Armstrong, Auditor; Joseph M. Gest, 



164 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Clerk; Henry Groves, Recorder; Job Hatfield, Treas- 
urer ; and George W. Patterson, Sheriff, thereupon re- 
moved all their respective records, books, papers and 
furniture, vi^ith the assistance of William P. Beacon, 
to a barge at the Rome landing, towed by the steamer 
Wave, which brought all to Cannelton on Thursday, 
December 7, 1859, and when safely lodged in the new 
buildings re-location became an accomplished fact. 

The first term of court held in Cannelton convened 
Tuesday morning, January 3, 1860, Judge Ballard 
Smith presiding pro tem in the absence of Judge Lem- 
ueu Q. De Bruler, who did not arrive until the after- 
noon. The first motion was by Charles H. Mason, for 
the admission of William McKinley, Jr., to the bar. 
That night was celebrated by a "Perry County Ball and 
Supper," given in Mozart Hall by the Ladies of Can- 
nelton — according to an original invitation still in 
■existence — "on the occasion of holding the first court 
at the new county seat." Five hundred people were 
reported by the following week's paper as having par- 
ticipated in the gaiety which demonstrated universal 
rejoicing over a victory hard-fought and long-delayed, 
in which Cannelton's high-minded women were a 
factor of no slight importance. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

COUNTY BANKS, NEWSPAPER CHANGES, ETC. 

The population of Cannelton, which in August, 1849, 
numbered 812 souls by actual count of a local census 
taker, had more than doubled by the spring of 1851, 
when a second enumeration showed over 1,600 resi- 
dents, of whom 408 were of school age. Two sawmills, 
the coal mines and cotton mill were in active operation, 
and in the autumn of that year the first foundry and 
machine establishment opened its doors, James Lees, 
Samuel T. Piatt, George C. Beebe, A. H. Cole and J. F. 
Abdell forming the company. It continued, through 
many changes of management, for nearly half a cen- 
tury, its last owners being under the firm title of James 
Lees' Sons. 

James Lees, for many years a valuable citizen, was 
born July 15, 1824, in Ireland though of purely Eng- 
lish parentage, his father, John Lees, being a soldier 
in the Royal Army and having received a medal of 
honour (yet in possession of his descendants) for serv- 
ice under Wellington in the battle of Waterloo. 
Brought with the regiment to British America when 
four years of age, he returned when twelve years old 
to England, where he completed his school education. 
In 1842 he entered on the machinist's trade in Dukin- 
field, Cheshire, (a few miles from the city of Man- 
chester), where April 18, 1849, he married Mary 
Sharpies, coming soon afterward to the United States. 

A year was spent in the eastern states, and in the 
autumn of 1850 he was placed in charge of the Cannel- 
ton Cotton Mills' repair shops. This position he filled 
until made engineer-in-chief, August, 1860, remaining 
such for a quarter of a century. Meanwhile he had 



166 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

made other investments which enabled him to retire 
from active labour and, while retaining supervision of 
the extensive works bearing his name, to enjoy in his 
closing years that quiet ease of a well-ordered home so 
dear to the English temperament of which he was a 
typical example. 

The growth of the community made it evident that 
legal control was necessary for maintaining proper 
order, so in September, 1852, a petition signed by two- 
thirds of the voters, asking that the place be incor- 
porated, was presented to Board of Commissioners by 
Burwell B. Lea. An election for deciding the question 
was held on September 18, 1852, when 171 votes were 
cast, with a result favourable to incorporatiton. Five 
trustees were chosen from the wards into which the 
town had been divided ; William Knights, Dwight New- 
comb, Frederick Boyd, Hamilton Smith and William 
P. Beacon. 

The Board met for organization September 28, at 
the Coal Company's ofRce, when Frederick Boyd was 
appointed Treasurer and John L. Jones, Jr., Clerk. 
Later in the autumn the usual town ordinances were 
adopted and published. 

A volunteer fire company was organized under the 
name "Torrent No. I," for whose benefit $150 was ap- 
propriated providing that not less than twenty men 
enlisted and that the Indiana Cotton Mills furnished 
the engine and apparatus. All conditions were com- 
plied with, and the original engine house, built in 
Washington street on the mill premises, remained in 
use until the summer of 1915, when the property was 
removed to other quarters and the alarm bell placed on 
the City Hall. 

In January, 1853, Joshua B. Huckeby was appointed 
town clerk; Daniel Curry, assessor; and James P. Mc- 
Gregor, marshal. Hamilton Smith was authorized to 
erect a corporation lock-up, or calaboose, and in Febru- 
ary William A. Wandell was chosen town attorney. 
Hamilton Smith, Frederick Boyd and William H. 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 167 

Mason became the first board of school trustees, and 
an ordinance was passed requiring the treasurer and 
marshal to receive only specie in payment of obliga- 
tions due the town. 

The degree of growth and material prosperity which 
the early 'fifties witnessed in Cannelton naturally drew 
wide attention to its financial possibilities, so that 
1854 saw the establishment of the Perry County Bank, 
the first to carry on actual operations in the county, 
although among the fourteen branches planned for the 
Vincennes State Bank, chartered by the Territorial 
Legislature sitting in 1814 at Corydon and confirmed 
under the Constitution of 1816, Troy was designated 
as the seat of one such bank. 

This system was well planned and its depositories 
excellently distributed, each to serve three counties, 
but there was not enough money in all Indiana to 
finance the scheme. A subscription equalling some $30 
per capita would have been required merely to float 
the stock which the state reserved for itself, so only 
three branches — at Corydon, Vevay and Brookville — 
were ever opened. 

Some of the notes issued by the Perry County Bank 
are yet in existence, preserved as mere curios without 
monetary value. Nearly if not all the capital stock of 
$100,000 was owned by W. H. Marston, an Eastern 
capitalist who was president; with R. R. Hunt, vice- 
president, and L. A. Smith, cashier. An office was 
rented in the large hotel building and for about one 
year a general banking business was carried on, re- 
ceiving deposits, discounting notes, buying and selling 
exchange. It was also a bank of issue, and its printed 
semi-annual statement showed some $70,000 worth of 
bills put into circulation, probably an issue made else- 
where before removal of their capital to Cannelton. 

Four years later, in the spring of 1858, another at- 
tempt was made by James M. Monroe and Levi Scobey, 
both strangers, who engaged quarters for a business 
under the style "Orleans Bank of Cannelton," whereof 



168 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

they were respectively president and cashier, with an 
alleged capital of $20,000. Many banks appear to have 
been undertaken by these men for the purpose of cir- 
culating 'wild-cat' issues. A total of near $14,000 is 
said to have been put out by these branches and several 
thousand dollars worth from Cannelton were disposed 
of in the East, eventually coming back for a redemp- 
tion which was never contemplated. 

Although Monroe and Scobey shrewdly published a 
pretended official bank-bill detector, wherein their own 
issues were rated at three per cent discount, their in- 
stitution gained no confidence from the start, so at the 
expiration of the month for which quarters had been 
engaged, the projectors (after selling their safe and 
office fixtures) decamped for fresh fields and pastures 
new. 

The earliest burying ground in Cannelton was on 
the rising ground to the eastward of Casselberry 
Creek's original course, close to the old log schoolhouse, 
but that it was inadequate for growth soon became 
apparent and other plans were made. In January, 
1854, a new organization was effected under the name 
Cliff Cemetery Association, with Francis Y. Carlile, 
Hamilton Smith, Charles H. Mason, John James Key, 
John Mason, William P. Beacon, Jacob B. Maynard, 
William McKinley, Sr., George Minto, Sr., Samuel T. 
Piatt, Ballard Smith, Frederick Boyd, Joseph H. Kolb, 
Joseph Whittaker, George Crehore, James A. Burkett, 
George C. Beebe and Dr. Charles L. Soyez as its first 
members. 

A donation of land in extent between seven and 
eight acres, crowning the lofty cliffs east of town 
when its appropriate name was derived, was made by 
the American Cannel Coal Company and suitably laid 
out by Hamilton Smith, Jr. For some years, however, 
there was no good road leading up the hill and 
occasional interments were still made in the old grave- 
yard. After its final disuse as such, the title reverted 
to the Coal Company, and a portion of the ground near 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 169 

the corner of Fourth and Congress streets was given 
in 1893 to the Baptists, who erected their church edifice 
thereon. That it probably covers some of the earliest 
graves was shown in the summer of 1915, when in 
excavating for a new water conduit to the baptistery- 
pool a metallic casket of ponderous weight and elabor- 
ate design was unearthed. That it must have con- 
tained the remains of some well-to-do person was 
evident, as the body was that of a man clad in expen- 
sive garb of old-time fashion, but no means of identi- 
fication presented themselves, though countless theories 
were advanced, so the coffin was again buried near the 
same spot. 

Farther south along Fourth street another part of 
the grounds was given, in 1907, to the African Method- 
ists, in exchange for the site at Fourth and Adams 
streets originally owned by the Presbyterians, and in 
the rear of the church and parsonage removed thither, 
a few crumbling monuments and leaning markers still 
indicate where once 'the rude forefathers of the hamlet 
slept.' Many ailanthus ("Heaven") trees, long ago 
regarded as particularly desirable for ornamental 
planting, remain in token that the spot was once tended 
by careful hands, but most of the bodies were removed 
to the hill during the 'sixties. 

The Cliff Cemetery Association was reorganized 
about 1869-70 by the lot owners, who elected a manag- 
ing board of trustees, one from each of the Protestant 
congregations in Cannelton. Additional ground was 
granted them by the Coal Company, and surveyed to 
coincide with the first avenues and walks. When the 
first St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church was built in 
1850 in Seventh street at the head of Madison, its 
churchyard was used as "God's Acre," but soon be- 
came insufficient and a new cementery tract, still in use 
and later enlarged, was given in 1854, to the congrega- 
tion, situate on the ridge road leading past Cliff 
Cemetery, a quarter-mile farther from town. 

The decade of the 'fifties witnessed many organiza- 



170 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

tions in Cannelton and the county at large ; — fire com- 
panies, hose, hook-and-ladder companies, etc., temper- 
ance and benevolent societies, most of which lasted 
only a few years. 

While itself of brief duration, one to be mentioned 
should be the Perry County Medical Society, the first 
of its kind, formed in response to a call published May 
27, 1854, in the Cannelton Reporter. On the appointed 
day. Doctor Clark, of Cannelton, was chosen president ; 
Doctor Gage, of Troy, secretary; Doctors Gest, Soyez 
and Sugg, a committee to draft a constitution and by- 
laws for the society. This, apparently, was the extent 
of its activity, as nothing further concerning it is any- 
where on record, and other similar organizations of 
later dates were equally temporary. 

One known as the General Council of Physicians of 
Perry County existed during the middle 'sixties, and in 
November, 1881, the Perry Medical Association was 
formed. Its officers were J. M. Butler, president; 
Mathias M. Howard, vice-president ; J. R. Webb, secre- 
tary; L. B. Lucas, treasurer; A. J. Smith, Charles M. 
Brucker and Isaac Lucas, censors. Jesse D. Bacon and 
J. W. Lucas were also members. 

Dr. Harmon Strong Clark was easily Cannelton's 
first leading physician, an eminently successful prac- 
titioner and a man of notable personality whose influ- 
ence and example were powerfully felt in building up 
all that made a good community. Born, May 26, 1820, 
at Huntsburg, Geauga County, Ohio, he was the son 
of Abner and Olive (Strong) Clark, both of whom 
sprang from old Colonial families of Massachusetts, 
running back to the day of the "Mayflower" and the 
Pilgrim Fathers, and still represented in the original 
homesteads. 

After attaining his twenty-first birthday he came 
into Hancock County, Kentucky, where he taught 
three terms of school, meanwhile studying medicine 
for two years with Doctor Stopp, of Lewisport. The 
new community in Indiana which was growing up on 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 171 

the site of old Coal Haven offered a promising field for 
a young medical man, hence he located at Cannelton 
on Sunday, June 20, 1847. As early as 1849 he had a 
drug store in connection with his practice and after- 
ward expanded this by adding a large general store 
which met with handsome financial success, besides 
another in Troy where he also owned a large pork- 
packing house. 

November 3, 1850, he married Hester Ann Rogers, 
daughter of Dr. Robert G. and Louisa (Protzman) Cot- 
ton, of Troy, and a while later they established their 
home in the "Willow Cottage" formerly owned by 
James Boyd on the river front at Cannelton. Three 
children were born to them, of whom a son and a 
daughter survive, and in the same house Dr. Clark's 
lamented death occurred May 5, 1863. His funeral, 
conducted by the Masonic order of which he was a 
leading member, was one of the largest ever in Can- 
nelton, a spontaneous tribute of esteem to one of her 
foremost citizens. 

A professional contemporary, some few years Doc- 
tor Clark's junior yet whose early career had been 
more thrillingly picturesque, was Dr. Magnus Brucker 
who located in 1849 at Troy. Born September 6, 1828, 
at Haslach, in Kinzigthale, in Baden, he prepared for 
college at famous "alt Heidelberg' and was graduated 
from the French University of Strasburg in Alsace- 
Lorraine. The enthusiasm of youth and patriotism 
enlisted him in the rebellion of 1848, and when the 
revolutionists were put down he came by way of Italy 
as a refugee to America. 

From the beginning of his practice in Troy success 
seemed to wait upon him, and he was serving his 
adopted county as representative in the Legislature 
of 1861 when war again broke about him. Immedi- 
ately enlisting as Regimental Surgeon in the Twenty- 
third Indiana Volunteer Infantry, he served out his 
full time with patriotic devotion to the cause he had 
espoused. The appreciative admiration of Perry 



172 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

County's citizens took form in electing him again in 
1866 to the same office he had unselfishly quitted for 
the battle-field in 1861. He lived in the county until 
his death October 23, 1874, a man of professional emi- 
nence and personal nobility. 



CHAPTER XIX 

RIVER TRAFFIC AND FAMOUS STEAMBOATS 

For three-quarters of a century Perry County's only 
commercial connection with the outside world was by 
means of river transportation, and steamboating on 
the Ohio reached its zenith between 1850 and 1860. 
The magnitude it attained seems fairly incredible now, 
when only occasional sternwheelers of moderate ca- 
pacity are seen, varied by powerful towboats from 
Pittsburg, or countless small gasoline craft. Of such 
Oriental luxury was the exterior and interior of many 
famous steamers in the olden time that detailed de- 
scription might be reckoned an Arabian Nights' tale. 

A lithographed drawing of Cannelton about 1850, 
showing six steamboats in sight at once, is not to be 
regarded as an artist's exaggeration, since not less 
than two-score packets were in regular trades below 
the Falls, passing Cannelton at stated intervals, and 
from eight to eighteen vessels lying at the landing at 
the same time was an ordinary occurrence at Louis- 
ville. 

The Belle Key, shown in the picture of Cannelton, 
was a popular New Orleans liner out of Louisville 
where her owner and master. Captain Key, resided. 
Many men then commanded their own boats, just as 
at sea, and as the enlarged canal around the Falls was 
not yet in operation, Louisville was a point of portage 
between upper and lower river freight or passengers. 
At a good stage of water boats went over the Falls 
with perfect safety, but during a part of each year 
Portland was the practical head of navigation and a 
scene of amazing activity. 

One trip of the Belle Key from Louisville to New 



174 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Orleans became historic in steamboat annals from the 
circumstance that every passenger and the last pound 
of freight was booked clear through, absolutely no 
way business having been accepted. 

Captain Key had arrived from the South to find at 
Louisville two boats ahead of him, loading to leave 
for New Orleans within the next thirty-six hours. As 
another boat was right behind him, he considered that 
his chances were small for a profitable trip, so de- 
cided, after consulting with his agent, to make a swift 
run down and bring everything he could carry on his 
upward trip, expecting to find no other boats in the 
way at New Orleans. 

Announcements were immediately posted in all ho- 
tels and public places that the Belle Key would leave 
at 5 p. m. without any way freight, but with all the 
passengers she could get, promising to put them in 
New Orleans inside of five days. When noised about 
town, hurried dray-loads of freight for New Orleans 
commenced rolling down the levee, besides supply 
wagons bearing all kinds of stores. Passengers al- 
ready booked for the other laden steamers cancelled 
their reservations, engaging staterooms on the Belle 
Key, so that all was bustle on the wharf. 

Many predictions of failure were uttered, as such a 
thing as a New Orleans boat leaving without a big 
freight cargo was unprecedented. But the captain be- 
came only more sanguine, arguing that a rising river 
and powerful current gave him great advantage for 
the entire distance, because if he did not lose time by 
accident or bad weather he would be moving at small 
expense compared with feeding passengers and burning 
fuel against the bank. 

With over a hundred tons of freight and her cabin 
full of long-distance passengers, the Key left on time, 
cheers and whistles saluting her departure "flying 
light" in shipping parlance. All the way down she 
was reported as "splitting the river wide open." and 
her commander's optimism was fully justified. He not 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 175 

only made a trip unequalled in speed for the distance, 
but found no other Louisville boat in harbour at the 
Crescent City, so got all the freight he could L:tem the 
Mississippi with coming north, and his subsequent 
trips south were always with a cabin-load of contented 
passengers. 

In the spring of 1853 the Reindeer, built a year be- 
fore by Captain Montgomery for the New Orleans 
trade, was placed in line between Louisville and St. 
Louis, passing Cannelton on her down trip Thursday 
evening, and on Tuesday morning going up. She was 
a swift vessel, her hull a model of symmetry and the 
upper works tinseled with elaborate scroll-work both 
inside and out. 

On all the boats stopping at the Cannelton wharf for 
coal or other business it was a custom among the pas- 
sengers to take advantage of the delay by walking 
about the town, so that many public individuals of na- 
tional importance were mentioned from time to time 
in the local paper as having stopped oif from such and 
such a boat. Henry Clay honoured the village April 
18, 1851, while the Peytona was briefly at the landing. 
Julia Dean, described as "a good-looking popular ac- 
tress," whose name is all but forgotten, was on board 
the Fashion, May 7, 1852. 

James E. Murdock, the masterly tragedian and 
Shaksperean reader, was another tourist-visitor 
later, while the somewhat notorious Lola Montes, the 
beautiful Spaniard whose liaison with the King of 
Bavaria had been flagrantly flaunted all over Europe, 
attracted her usual attention when in Cannelton on 
St. Patrick's Day, 1853. She was en route to St. Louis 
to appear on the stage and had been put oif the Eclipse 
some few days before for refusing to take her meals 
with the other passengers, sending instead her maid 
and lapdog to occupy the seat reserved for her at Cap- 
tain Sturgeon's table. 

Just one year later, March 16, 1854, the Reindeer was 
again at Cannelton bound for St. Louis when both flues 



176 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

of her starboard boiler exploded as she was rounding 
out into the river from Boyd's wharfboat about ten 
o'clock at night. The report of the explosion was most 
startling and caused a general rush of citizens to the 
scene, which was at once frightful and heartrending. 
Despite the cries for help and the harrowing screams 
of the scalded sufferers, immediate assistance could not 
be rendered, as the high stage of water made it haz- 
ardous to approach the crippled steamer in small 
boats. 

The Europa, however, chanced to be coming up and 
succeeded in getting the Reindeer under control, land- 
ing her some distance below. Citizens and physicians 
from both Cannelton and Hawesville hastened to the 
relief of the victims, most of whom were deck passen- 
gers and members of the boat's crew. Everything pos- 
sible was done to alleviate the agony of the wounded, 
but all were fearfully injured, some having arms or 
legs broken, besides terrible burns, and the flesh of 
some was so scalded that it literally fell from the bones 
in attempting to remove their clothing. 

Toward niorning the steamer Magnolia took the 
Reindeer across to Hawesville, where on the following 
day the bodies of the deceased were given reverent 
interment in one huge grave which is still pointed out 
in the Hawesville cemetery. Inspection which fol- 
lowed developed the fact that pure lead had been used 
in the flues instead of the alloy prescribed by govern- 
ment regulations. 

Another accident, less fatal but far more spectacu- 
lar, occurred at one o'clock in the morning of Satur- 
day, March 30, 1860, when the steamer Kate May took 
fire at the Cannelton landing and burned to the water's 
edge. She was bound for Cincinnati on her return 
trip from the Arkansas River, under command of Cap- 
tain J. L. Bruce, and carried among her cargo seven 
hundred bales of cotton, a part of which was consigned 
to the Indiana Cotton Mills. , 

The officers and crew were all forward, engaged in 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 177 

taking two coal flats in tow when the fire, which had 
originated in the under tier of bales, was discovered. 
The flames spread with such rapidity around the stair- 
ways it became evident that efforts to save the boat 
would be only desperate folly, so Captain Bruce hast- 
ened to arouse the imperiled passengers, directing 
them to means of escape. His example of coolness and 
courage prevented any disorder, and the only life lost 
was that of the negro chambermaid. She had been one 
of the earliest awakened in the cabin, but was seen 
running to the forward end of the boat, whence it was 
supposed that she became terrified at the flames and 
leaped overboard into the water, thus drowning, un- 
observed. But little baggage was saved and the Can- 
nelton people proved their liberal kindness by making 
up to the passengers much that they had lost in the 
way of clothes and other personal belongings. 

Twenty-four sidewheelers forming the Louisville 
and New Orleans "Lightning" Line during the fifties 
should be named: The A. L. Shotwell, Antelope, At- 
lantic, Autocrat, Baltic, B. J. Adams, Chancellor, Di- 
ana, Eclipse, E. H. Fairchild, Empress, Fanny Bullitt, 
Fashion, H. D. Newcomb, James Montgomery, John 
Raine, Louisville, Magenta, Peytona, Robert J. Ward, 
T. C. Twitchell, Uncle Sam, Virginia and Woodford. 
Not one of these cost less than $200,000, yet all were 
marvellous money makers. The Fanny Bullitt, built 
at a cost of $210,000, nevertheless paid for herself 
during the first four months and before her career was 
ended by dismantling had earned her price fourteen 
and one-half times. 

Greatest and grandest of all craft ever afloat on 
western waters was the Eclipse, whose name accurately 
indicated her character. Built in 1851-52 in New Al- 
bany, at a cost of $375,000, she passed Cannelton 
March 24, 1852, on her maiden trip to New Orleans, 
and her like had never been seen, nor will it be again 
beheld. 

In mere dimensions she excelled all records, a hull 

(12) 



178 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

363 feet long, water wheels 42 feet in diameter, with 
14 foot buckets, sustained by shafts of 22-inch diame- 
ter, weighing 13 tons each. Two large engines, of 36- 
inch cylinders with 11 foot stroke, generated the mo- 
tive power, besides four smaller engines, for hoisting 
freight and pumping water. Eight large boilers were 
321/2 feet in length by 42 inches diameter, besides seven 
cylinder boilers 35 feet by 12 inches. Her smokestacks 
measured a diameter of 85 inches and towered 86 feet 
above the hurricane deck. 

The first passengers' cabin extended a length of 300 
feet, and it was here that money had been squandered 
with lavishness unparalleled. Five thousand dollars 
was spent on the carpet alone, woven in Brussels from 
original designs and specifications sent from New Al- 
bany while the boat was being built. This carpet con- 
sisted of two immense rugs the full width of the cabin, 
extending fore and aft from the central gangway and 
woven with eyelets by which they could be buttoned 
down at the edges and readily lifted for cleaning. 

Every piece of chinaware was made from special 
patterns by the Haviland potteries at Limoges, the 
smaller plates, cups and saucers bearing the initial 
"E" in gold near the edge, while the larger dishes were 
marked "Eclipse" in gilded letters. A flying golden 
eagle surmounted this as a crest upon the tall ware 
such as tureens, comport dishes and pitchers. The sil- 
ver was all sterling, made to special order and en- 
graved with name in ornate script, while all the cut- 
lery and service was of the same costly description. 
Added to all this, the mere goldleaf used in decoration 
when building the boat amounted to $4,875, a single 
detail of the extravagance displayed throughout. 

One hundred and twenty people made up the full 
crew in every capacity, under command of Captain E. 
T. Sturgeon, so the passengers were literally on a 
floating hotel, with servants trained to anticipate every 
wish. Among the officers for several seasons was a 
Perry County man, Martin Frank, then in his early 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 179 

twenties, who had spent six years in flatboating be- 
tween his birthplace (Harrison County) and New Or- 
leans, thus acquiring an intimate knowledge of both the 
Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. This experience, added 
to three years (1857-60) on board the Eclipse, made 
him a valuable auxiliary in the Federal gunboat serv- 
ice which he entered in 1861, after one year of farm 
life in Perry County, following his marriage with 
Amanda E. Hoyne, of Tobin Township. He v^^as pres- 
ent at the taking of Fort Donelson, at the surrender 
of Vicksburg, and his boat was near when Arkansas 
Post fell, having carried despatches to General Grant. 
The close of the war also terminated his career as 
pilot and he returned to farming, which he followed 
with financial success for many years until ready to 
retire from active life, then living in Cannelton until 
his death, in March, 1913. 

Besides the all-surpassing splendour of her equipment, 
the Eclipse was the swiftest long-distance boat ever in 
the Mississippi Valley, and as such her record remains 
unbroken, disregarding numerous spurt records where 
fast steamers made extraordinary time over short 
courses. In 1853 occurred the memorable speed con- 
test between the Eclipse and the A. L. Shotwell, the 
former running from the foot of Canal Street, New 
Orleans, to the Portland wharf, Louisville, in four 
days, nine hours and twenty minutes, the latter's time 
being exactly one hour longer. This race was even 
more thrilling than the famous contest of 1870 between 
the Robert E. Lee and Natchez, from New Orleans to 
Saint Louis, as the Eclipse and Shotwell were fre- 
quently in plain sight of each other for miles at a time, 
and thousands of dollars changed hands on the result. 

An old ledger shows that on one trip during the 
spring of 1858 the bar receipts of the Eclipse were 
$2,302.20, so it is probable the poker games must have 
been for fabulous stakes, as twelve coal-boat pilots 
were on their way back to Pittsburg as passengers. A 
net profit of $6,621.10 on freight carried the same trip 



180 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

is also shown by the same record-book, the profit for 
passengers amounting to $414.60. 

Reading the menu of an ordinary day's dinner shows 
where the money went, since Lucullus himself could 
only with difficulty have designed a more elaborate 
banquet than one beginning with ox-tail soup, going 
through barbecued bass and sheepshead to six varie- 
ties of boiled and three of cold spiced meats, with 
choice of ten side-dishes, before the actual meat course 
was reached. 

Eight kinds of roast were then offered, and under 
the head of "Green" appears the modest statement, 
"All Vegetables of the Season." The dessert is yet 
more bewildering with seven different pies, four pud- 
dings, four creams, blanc-mange, custard, charlotte 
russe, sherbets, two "frozettes," and a delicacy not 
known today called "charlexaice" ; to say nothing of 
five cakes, six kinds of fruit, three of nuts, claret and 
white wines and coffee. 

Charles Dickens unfortunately visited America some 
years too early to enjoy a voyage aboard the Eclipse, 
else he would scarcely have described a steamboat din- 
ner on the Ohio River as "a collation of funeral baked 
meats." 

In the Saint Louis trade also were several very fine, 
fast boats, such as the Reindeer, Alvin Adams, Fash- 
ion, Fawn and two well-known sister steamers, the 
Northerner and the Southerner, both low-pressure and 
thus notable in their class, comparatively few of the 
kind proving successful, although the Indiana and 
Richmond were two other and later examples. 

In the regular Memphis trade the Commercial was 
for years a particular local favourite because com- 
manded by a Cannelton man, Captain Samuel Archer. 
His boat was noted during the War Between the States 
as the first one ever flying the Confederate flag clear 
from Memphis into the port of Louisville. Needless 
to say, this act of daring was not often repeated, nor 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 181 

copied by others, yet Captain Archer and his wife 
(Burnetta Mason) remained ardent Southern sympa- 
thizers. 

Quinine, worth its weight in gold and contraband 
besides, was smuggled through the lines in a rag doll, 
as belonging to their daughter, Mollie Archer (Mrs. 
Charles Schmuck, later Mrs. Hofmeister) , who accom- 
panied her parents on several trips to Memphis, and 
the hem of her dress skirt was likewise laden with the 
priceless drug. 

Nothing else recalls to the present generation the 
early glory of river days so vividly as the floating the- 
atres which are still an important summer amusement 
feature to ail small towns along the Ohio. Dan Rice, 
the famous clovv'n and circus manager, claimed to have 
been the pioneer in the floating show business, a Thes- 
pian Daniel Boone blazing the trail for a line of fol- 
lowers whose end is not yet in sight sixty years aft- 
erward. 

Before many river points were accessible by rail 
the circus traveled from town to town by boat, pitch- 
ing its tents at some convenient spot near the river 
bank. An idea occurred to Rice that much time and 
needless labour was daily wasted setting tents and 
striking canvas, so he evolved and executed a plan of 
lashing together several flat-bottomed coal-barges, 
erecting his tent thereon with ring and tiers of seats 
just as on land, so that the same performance could be 
given. Instant success attended the first cruise of the 
odd craft. 

"Excelsior," the blind white horse, displayed his 
marvellous education by answering questions, count- 
ing numbers, doing "sums" in addition or subtraction ; 
"Nellie," the jumping mare; "Bravo" and "Bonita," 
the chariot pair, all careened about the forty-foot arena 
as if its tanbark were spread upon Mother Earth. 
Annual trips were long continued, or until Rice's ad- 
vancing years and failing health compelled abandon- 



182 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

merit of his business, which he could no longer man- 
age in person. 

Another aggregation, the "Floating Palace," won 
even greater notoriety from the circumstance that it 
was the first to use illuminating gas on the river. 
Spaulding and Rogers were its owners and the thea- 
tre was towed by the steamer James Raymond, on 
board which the gas was generated. Pipes connected 
the two crafts, carrying the gas to great chandeliers 
suspended over the circus ring, in the menagerie de- 
partment, dressing rooms and box office, as well as 
lighting the steamboat's cabin. 

Elephants, giraffes, ostriches, polar bears, all min- 
gled in the display ; a collection of wax figures rivalled 
Madame Tussaud's exhibit in London ; a panoramic 
view of the world was unrolled and over a hundred 
other oil paintings were on view, with relics of Egypt, 
Herculaneum and Pompeii ; a calliope with several oc- 
taves' range discoursed melodies then popular, with an 
accompaniment of sweet bells — happily, not "out of 
tune"; an alleged "Polish Refugee," Madame Olinza, 
performed "graceful, thrilling and terrific feats upon 
a tight-rope stretched at dizzy height in mid-air," 
meanwhile "playing exquisitely the Cornet-a-piston ;" 
an "incomparable genius," Mr. S. K. G. Nellis, who had 
^'appeared with great eclat before the crowned heads 
and nobility of Europe," now wrote letters, shot bows 
and arrows, loaded and discharged pistols, played on 
the accordeon and violincello, cut out valentines and 
silhouettes, all 

"WITH HIS TOES ALONE." 

Specimens of his last named dexterity are yet to be 
seen, and a portrait cut from life of Anthony Crockett, 
a nephew to "Davy" Crockett, which Nellis had cut out 
July 12, 1856, was shown at a Woman's Club loan ex- 
hibit at Hawesville in the spring of 1915. 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 183 

But even more wonderful than animals, acrobats, 
or horseback riders jumping through tissue-paper cov- 
ered hoops was the novel illuminant whereby these 
sights were beheld, and it is an established fact that 
many thousands of people down the Ohio Valley gazed 
on a burning gas-jet for the first time in their lives on 
board Spaulding and Rogers' Floating Palace. 



CHAPTER XX 

SWISS COLONIZATION SOCIETY AT TELL CITY 

Among all the countries of Europe none can boast 
a prouder heritage of history than little Switzerland, 
and none has shared with America a finer strain of na- 
tional blood than that which the gallant Republic of 
the Old World sent across the Atlantic to mingle with 
the growing Republic of the New World. 

As early as 1796 Jean Jacques Dufour, a Switzer 
from the Canton de Vaud, explored the Ohio River all 
along the boundary line of Indiana, seeking a suitable 
location for the future homes of himself, his four 
brothers, three sisters and some few associates. 
Pleased with the almost mountainous hills coming 
close to the river which reflected them like his own 
Alpine lakes, he fixed upon a site fifty-five miles west 
of Cincinnati, between Plum and Indian Creeks, where 
by special act of Congress he was permitted to pur- 
chase four sections of land at the price of $2 an acre. 

In May, 1801, the new settlers landed at Norfolk, 
Virginia, coming thence to Indiana by way of Lexing- 
ton, Kentucky, where two years were spent in adjust- 
ing themselves to pioneer conditions before taking up 
actual residence upon their new lands. These were 
situated in what was then Dearborn County, but the 
colony increased to such a degree that in the autumn 
of 1814 a petition was laid before the Territorial Leg- 
islature praying for a new county, which was accord- 
ingly organized under the appropriate title of Switzer- 
land, further sentiment bestowing upon its county seat 
the harmonious name of Vevay. 

Two natives of Vevay, the Eggleston brothers — Ed- 
ward and George Cary — have given to literature accu- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 185 

rate word-pictures of these early Switzers and their 
mingling with the other settlers who came from vari- 
ous American states to form a community yet retaining 
many quaintly individual characteristics, but no writer 
has yet done full justice, either in fiction or serious 
history to the movement which established, half a cen- 
tury later, in Perry County a Swiss colony upon a 
larger scale with more definite plans, whose accom- 
plishment attained a fuller measure of permanent 
success. 

Geographical conditions cause the Swiss race to feel 
strongly the influence of the three other nations — 
France, Italy and Germany — which are immediately 
adjacent, and just as the family names Dufour, Du- 
mont, Thiebaud, Duprez and others found in Switzer- 
land County plainly show their Vaudois origin, the 
earliest Switzers of Perry County bore names rela- 
tively Teutonic in their suggestiveness and from Can- 
ton Schwyz, near storied Lake Lucerne, came Charles 
Steinauer, a factor of prime importance in the Swiss 
Colonization Society which was organized November 
16, 1856, at Cincinnati. 

Although the very first minutes of the society are 
missing, its purpose appears to have been to furnish 
mutual aid in founding homes and business enterprises 
in what was then known as "The West," and under the 
constitution adopted December 14, 1856, Professor J. 
C. Christin became the first President; Charles Stein- 
auer, Recording Secretary; Richard Luethy, Corre- 
sponding Secretary, and J. Goldenberg, Treasurer. 

A time-faded original document, accidentally brought 
to light in a Cannelton private library during the 
preparation of this volume, bears date of Cincinnati, 
January 10, 1857, and is here reproduced verbatim et 
literatim : 

"In pursuance of notice the Swiss Colonisation So- 
ciety held a meeting this evening for the purpose of 
effecting organization and obtaining the privilege of 
a corpored body under the Law of Ohio passed May 



186 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

1st, 1852. J. C. Christin was acting as Chairman and 
C. Steinauer as Secretary. 

"After the Chairman had stated the object of the 
meeting it was on motion resolved, That we now pro- 
ceed to elect three Trustees and one Clerk to hold their 
office for one year and until their Successors shall be 
duly chosen, whereupon the following persons, mem- 
bers of said Society were duly elected Trustees, namely, 
J. Schoettly, J. C. Christin, J. C. Appenzeller. H. Pfis- 
ter was elected Clerk. 

"Resolved: That this Association be known as the 
Swiss Colonisation Society. 

"Resolved : That the Clerk elected have a true copy 
of the proceedings of this meeting recorded in the Re- 
corder's Office, of Hamilton County, Ohio, for the pur- 
poses aforesaid. 

J. C. Christin, Chairman, 
C. Steinauer, Secretair. 

"Cincinnati, January 14, 1857. 
"I, H. Pfister, certify that the foregoing is a true 
copy of the proceedings of a meeting held by the 
Swiss-Colonisation-Society on the 10th day of January, 
1857. 

H. Pfister." 

On its reverse side appears further: 

"Swiss Colonisation Society. 

"Rec'd 15 January 1857. Recorded in Book of 
Church Records Page 176. J. W. Carlton, Recorder 
Hamilton County, Ohio. Paid." 

Branches to the number of fifteen were planted at 
different points in the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys, 
as far away as Davenport, Iowa, and the first of the 
annual general conventions, planned to be held for the 
interests of the society at the various colonies in turn, 
met April 19-20-21, 1857, at Cincinnati. 

Up to this time the total receipts amounted to 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 187 

$35,255 with an expenditure of only $180, and a spe- 
cial committee had been sent out to look up land suit- 
able for colonization. But one of the Ohio River's 
periodical and most disastrous freshets had occurred 
during that spring, so the homeseekers returned like 
Noah's weary dove to the Ark, without even the sig- 
nificant olive branch. 

In July of the same year Charles Rebstock, M. Oehl- 
man and C. Tueffli came down the river on a similar 
quest, stopping at numerous places for inspection of 
the country. Efforts were made to engage large tracts 
of land at Rome and at Cannelton, but as the prices 
asked were too high or the available acreage insufl^i- 
cient, no purchases were made. It is told that an ex- 
tensive tract below Hawesville was offered upon good 
terms, but that the Commissioners held that it would 
appear inconsistent with their ideals of liberty to plant 
their community in a slaveholding state. 

Be this as it may, some now unknown consideration 
dictated their choice of land lying directly opposite, 
whose natural facilities — other than the circumstance 
of its location upon the Indiana shore — were far in- 
ferior to those on the Kentucky side for the upbuilding 
of a town, "Mistletoe Lodge," Judge Huntington's 
seven hundred acre estate, formerly owned by Nicho- 
las J. Roosevelt and for many years later by the heirs 
of Robert Fulton, was the first and largest purchase, 
July 29, 1857, for $28,000. Others selling tracts of 
different sizes at varying prices were Judge Ballard 
Smith, Joshua B. Huckeby, Henry P. Brazee, John 
James, Eli Thrasher, Samuel Webb, Charles Scull, John 
Turner, Benjamin Persinger, Edwin Morris Abel, G. 
W. and William Butler, besides others whose names 
imply non-resident ownership. 

Four thousand one hundred and fifty-four acres was 
the aggregate bought, at a total price of $85,364, to 
meet which sum an assessment of $15 was made upon 
each of 8,192 shares held, followed a little later by an 
additional tax of $5 per capita. This fund amounted 



188 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

to $163,840 (although something like $20,000 was 
never fully paid), and each share entitled its owner to 
two plots of land in the new settlement. The allot- 
ment was made by drawing lots, thus giving every 
member an absolutely equal chance as to desirability 
of location. 

Much of the site was irregular hill-land covered with 
dense forest growth, other portions cut up by gullies, 
depressions and the spreading forks of Windy Creek, 
so laying out a regular city plat upon such broken 
ground was an undertaking whose success bespeaks 
high engineering skill on the part of the chief sur- 
veyor, August Pfaefflin, who was assisted by Christo- 
pher R. Huntington. The plat was laid off into 392 
town blocks, containing 7,328 lots and 294 garden 
blocks, having 794 lots. Based on a conservative esti- 
mate of six persons to a lot this provided for a possible 
city of 90,000 inhabitants, an optimistic outlook whose 
realization yet remains in the future, notwithstanding 
the creditable development which three-score years 
have brought about. 

The river's course being here west of north, the site 
was laid out into streets exactly rectangular with the 
points of the compass, leaving some irregularly shaped 
blocks in the angles next the river, but all the remain- 
der being parallelograms. Beginning at First Street 
the streets running north and south were eighty feet 
in width, running up to Thirty-second Street, al- 
though topographical conditions have practically lim- 
ited the growth of settlement between Sixth and Four- 
teenth Streets. 

A peculiarly interesting example of street nomen- 
clature, one of striking originality for its time, is to 
be noticed in the seventy-foot intersecting streets 
which run from east to west. The first roadway cut 
through the forest was in the exact centre of the plat 
and received the appropriate name of Tell Street, 
though local circumstances have kept it from becom- 
ing the important thoroughfare anticipated, commer- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 189 

cial interests having followed the line of Eighth Street 
whose title was officially changed in 1915 to Main 
Street. 

Such names as Winkelried, Payne, Blum and Herr- 
mann served to recall their home land to the sturdy 
pioneers; while to perpetuate the spirit of liberty, 
which had sent other and earlier lovers of freedom 
from Europe to America, the names of Lafayette, De- 
Kalb and Steuben, were bestowed on other streets. 
From these it was a natural transition to America's 
own heroes of the Revolutionary period, so the names 
of Washington, Jefferson and Franklin were utilized. 

Since the new settlement was designed to become a 
manufacturing community, the power of steam found 
recognition under the names of Watt and Fulton. 
Education was commemorated through Pestalozzi; 
Humboldt received the choice as a representative of 
natural science; Schiller recalled the wealth of litera- 
ture possessed by the German language; Rubens paid 
tribute to the art of painting, while Mozart bespoke a 
love for the best in music. The first printing office was 
established near Gutenberg Street, a site yet occupied 
by a newspaper office, but whether this location was 
accidental or intentional cannot now be determined. 

With such admirable civic taste as was thus dis- 
played, it is regrettable that the title "Helvetia" origi- 
nally suggested for the place itself was exchanged for 
the "city" suffix so typical of America's new towns, 
yet "Tell City," by which the village came to be known 
in the autumn of 1857, has in itself a certain sug- 
gestiveness of its own period in our national devel- 
opment. 

When the philosopher Themistocles was asked, at a 
feast in violet-crowned Athens, to play upon a musical 
instrument, his reply was: "I am ignorant of such 
an art, but I know how to make a small town a great 
city," and every promoter of a new village located any- 
where between the Apalachians and the Rockies, be- 
tween 1850 and 1860, fancied himself a modern The- 



190 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

mistocles. As Tell City, therefore, the infant com- 
munity made her initial entry upon History's page, 
nor is the seal yet set upon her record. 

The year 1857 was consumed in laying out the town 
site preparatory for immigration, and the earliest ar- 
rival of residents was on March 13, 1858, Charles 
Steinauer being one of the three or four who came 
then. He was just thirty years of age, having been 
born March 17, 1828, in Canton Schwyz, Switzerland, 
one of five sons and two daughters who were the chil- 
dren of Benedict and Gertrude (Effinger) Steinauer. 
Receiving a liberal education in his home, he crossed 
the ocean at the age of twenty-two to seek new fortune 
in America, locating first in Cincinnati, where he en- 
gaged in business until coming to Indiana. His native 
talents had identified him with the colonization move- 
ment from its inception, and he ably filled many posi- 
tions of high responsibility in the county which he 
made his home for the rest of his life, or until Febru- 
ary 28, 1891. 

He was an active and valuable Republican, and while 
never an oflSce seeker consented to serve as County 
Commissioner from 1881 to 1884. Spending his life 
as a bachelor, his only remaining relatives in Tell City 
are collateral descendants springing from the marriage 
of his brother, August Steinauer, to Antonia Stein- 
auer (not a relative). The two brothers' first busi- 
ness venture in Tell City was the earliest hotel opened 
there, kept in the "Mistletoe Lodge" residence which 
had been Judge Huntington's home, situate on the 
river front between Gutenberg and Washington 
Streets. This they followed for two years, then en- 
tered upon the manufacture of flour in which the fam- 
ily has continued up to the present with marked 
success. 

Probably the earliest industrial undertaking was the 
saw-mill established April, 1858, by the Herrmann 
Brothers (John and Peter) who found themselves 
scarcely able to supply the enormous demand for lum- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 191 

ber, as there were no houses to shelter newcomers and 
buildings of flimsy nature sprang up like mushrooms 
everywhere in the woods. 

The Herrmanns were of Prussian birth, children of 
John and Katharina (Altes) Herrmann, and came to 
the United States in 1852, working at the wagon mak- 
ers' trade in various cities of Ohio before locating in 
Cincinnati. From thence they removed to Tell City, 
of which John Herrman became the first postmaster, 
when the postoffice was established in 1858 by Post- 
master-General Aaron V, Brown, of Tennessee, whose 
official successor as holder of that portfolio in Buch- 
anan's cabinet was Joseph Holt, of Kentucky, born di- 
rectly opposite Perry County, at "Holt Place," Breck- 
inridge County. A year later the Herrmann brothers 
entered upon the wagon making business, building up 
what became one of the largest in Southern Indiana. 
After some years the manufacture of hames was de- 
veloped, remaining in control of the Herrmann fam- 
ily, who are still locally prominent, until 1906, when 
their plant was absorbed by the United States Hame 
Manufacturing Company, who made Tell City one of 
their principal depots in the Middle West. 

Miss Josephine Blum was the first girl born in the 
village and William Scheitlen the first boy. Frank 
Herm erected the first house after the town site was 
platted, a log edifice at the southwest corner of Main 
(Eighth) and Tell Streets, which remained until the 
dawn of the Twentieth Century, a small replica of it 
being displayed in an industrial parade which cele- 
brated Mardi Gras of the year 1900. J. K. Frick was 
the pioneer architect, but the temporary nature of 
most of the buildings debarred him from any profound 
undertakings in Tell City, though he afterward won 
more permanent professional success in Evansville. 

It is said that the sign "Lager Bier" was displayed 
upon fully three-fourths of the earliest houses, yet 
drunkenness was a thing unknown and disorder was 
wholly absent from the peaceful life of the colonists. 



192 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Their industrial activities were turned in a direction 
radically opposed to dissipation of any kind, although 
they brought from the Fatherland the Continental ob- 
servance of Sunday as a holiday none the less than as 
a holy day. Harmless Sabbath-day pastime, therefore, 
was never frowned upon but rather encouraged from 
the first, and after the lapse of almost sixty years the 
social atmosphere of Tell City retains much of that en- 
joyable liberality which was the ideal of its founders, 
who were communistic in the term's true sense, with- 
out being Socialists, as the word is spoken today. 



CHAPTER XXI 

PIONEER MEN AND INDUSTRIES OF TELL CITY. 

By leaps and bounds the population increased dur- 
ing the first year of Tell City's existence and the three 
hundred people who were there in April, 1858, had 
grown to six hundred and twenty by June 1, and 
eighty-six houses had been built. At the close of the 
month 986 persons were enumerated, with 120 houses, 
and five miles of streets cut through the trees. 

On July 5 (the Fourth falling on Sunday) the first 
celebration of Independence Day was marked by a pic- 
nic on the hill, at which three or four thousand people 
were present, according to the account given in the 
Cannelton Reporter of July 10. The steamer Prairie 
Rose had brought from Cincinnati a special excursion 
of 600 Switzers who came down the river to visit their 
friends and see the new town. The boat lay in port 
three days before returning, but many of the tourists 
had decided to remain, as a fresh census taken within 
the same M^eek showed 1,230 residents and 154 
buildings. 

The Swiss Colonization Society held its second gen- 
eral convention September 19-20-21, 1858, at Tell City 
and the board of the organization was then officially 
transferred to Perry County. The first officers of the 
Tell City branch were Charles Steinauer, President; 
F. W. Dietz, Vice-President; John Siebert, Secretary; 
William Leopold, Assistant Secretary; John Wegman, 
Treasurer ; Louis Frey, Agent and Corresponding Sec- 
retary. All these oflficers composed the Board of Di- 
rectors and an act was passed authorizing loans of 
from $500 to $1,000 of the society's funds to worthy 
business or manufacturing enterprises. 

(13) 



194 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

To the first shingle mill, started by Jacob Loew, a 
loan of $300 was extended, and like amounts to Reis 
and Endebrock who founded the first brewery, and to 
Peter Schreck by whom the second was established. 
One hundred dollars was lent in November, 1858, to 
David Brosi and Henry Meyer who started the first 
planing mill. Prior to this time the only lumber yard 
was that of Hausler and Company, who had brought 
dressed timber, mouldings, doors, windows and shut- 
ters from Cincinnati. In the following spring a loan 
of $4,000 was made to the Tell City Furniture Factory. 
It was organized by twenty-five men, at whose head 
was John C. Harrer, born June 14, 1822, in Bavaria, 
the eldest son of George and Christina (Long) Harrer. 
After learning the cabinet maker's trade and following 
it through various parts of Germany, he came in 1846 
to America, first to Pittsburg, thence to Cincinnati 
and finally into Perry County. Married twice — in 
1847 to Eleanor Rohe and in 1864 to Susan Hanne- 
krath — his Tell City descendants in this generation 
are many. 

The first store of any consequence was opened as 
early as April, 1858, by Charles W. Reif, Sr., one of 
those who had come down the river the previous year 
to select a town site and who was active among the 
town's founders. He had come with his wife, Bar- 
bara Graf, in 1848 to America from Baden, where he 
was born January 17, 1817. John Jacob Meyer, a 
native of Canton Zurich, Switzerland, September 24, 
1828, one of nine children born to John Jacob and 
Barbara (Staubli) Meyer, was a pioneer in the hard- 
ware business and tinner's trade in which he had 
served a four years' apprenticeship at home before 
coming in 1854 to the United States. One year earlier 
as an immigrant had come Herman Stalder, also a 
Switzer, from Canton Aargau, born November 26, 1833, 
his parents, Ludwig and Clara (Herzog) Stalder hav- 
ing brought fourteen children into the world. All 
three of these men were very early merchants who in 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 195 

time became veterans in the commercial circles of Tell 
City, and others were John Hartman, Frederick Rank, 
John Siebert, F. W. Dietz, John Graff, Charles Robert, 
Kimmel and Goettel. 

In May, 1858, the original wharfboat was floated 
down the river from Cincinnati and rented to Fred- 
erick Steiner, a native of Canton St. Gall, August 10, 
1830, who remained in control for many years, be- 
coming a notable river man, familiar in steamboat cir- 
cles everywhere and personally conspicuous from his 
immense size, which made him a striking figure up to 
his death, October 30, 1882. Facing the wharf he 
erected the three-story brick hotel which has long been 
a landmark to river travelers and attained a wide repu- 
tation, first as the Steiner House and afterward the 
Hotel Moraweck. 

Anton Moraweck, for many years its manager and 
later its owner, was born August 15, 1828, in Bohemia, 
the youngest child of Joseph and Josepha (Philipp) 
Moraweck, and had been only two years in America 
when the impetus of the Swiss Colonization Society 
brought him in 1858 from Davenport, Iowa, to Perry 
County. By his marriage. May 13, 1856, to Claudine 
Kroboth, three children were born of whom the eldest 
became a physician of international reputation. Dr. 
Ernest Moraweck was a specialist whose authority 
carried weight in the clinics of Vienna and Berlin no 
less than the United States, and it was while returning 
from one of his frequent voyages across the Atlantic 
that he lost his life in the tragic sinking of the Titanic, 
April 15, 1912. His wife, Amelia Basler of Tell City, 
had died several years earlier, no offspring resulting 
from the marriage. 

Paul Schuster was Tell City's pioneer real estate 
agent and lawyer, but remained only a short time be- 
fore going to Cannelton where he was the founder and 
principal of Franklin Institute. 

Educational standards having been always most as- 
siduously cultivated among the Switzers, it was less 



198 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

than four months after the earliest settlers of Tell City- 
arrived that the first school was commenced, in July, 
1858, with Albert Ostreicher as its teacher. His in- 
struction was given entirely in German, and the small 
building available could accommodate only a limited 
number of those wishing to attend. A two-story frame 
school house was erected in early autumn by the Colo- 
nization Society, and about November it is said that 
regular sessions were begun, employing two teachers 
and both the English and German languages. The 
two tongues continued to be used side by side through- 
out the grades for some forty years, more or less, but 
German was finally relegated to the high school course, 
as an alternative with Latin for graduation, according 
to the Indiana scheme of study. 

"Tell City is a marvel," declared the Cannelton Re- 
porter of October 2, 1858. "There is nothing like its 
history and progress, and it has no precedent. It has 
now over eleven miles of streets, cut seventy and eighty 
feet wide through the forests; has 1,500 people and 
300 houses. All this has been done since the middle 
of last April. The shareholders are coming in daily 
and as soon as they can find their lots, begin their im- 
provements. Everyone seems confident that the own- 
ers of the adjacent lots will come and do likewise. By 
this time next year, we expect to see 5,000 people here 
and the establishment of sufficient branches of indus- 
try to give all full employment. This union of Ger- 
man and Swiss, of industry and economy, of thrift and 
industry, will accomplish wonders." 

March 19, 1859, appeared the first issue of a Tell 
City newspaper, the Helvetia, whose outfit was re- 
moved from Cincinnati where it had been founded 
three years before by the Colonization Society, who 
owned it, a committee having charge of its publica- 
tion. Its first local proprietors and editors were Wal- 
ser and Schellenbaum, who printed it in German as a 
six-column folio, at a subscription price of $2. Orig- 
inally independent in politics, it came out strongly 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 197 

Republican during the national campaign of 1860 and 
remained such for its whole existence, under several 
changes of name and ownership. 

John Weber, Louis Frey, J. N. Sorg, Albert Ost- 
reicher and Ferdinand Mengis were all in turn con- 
nected with the office, until publication ceased in 1865. 
Henry Meyer then attempted its revival as the Volks- 
blatt, but without success, and for a short time later 
it was printed as the Beobachter. 

The initial number of the Anzeiger, however, ap- 
pearing September 1, 1866, was the beginning of a 
permanent periodical, first owned by M. Schmidt and 
F. J. Widmer, with an editorial committee of twelve 
citizens. Within a few years the controlling interest 
was purchased by George F. Bott, and in his family the 
establishment remains, though the Anzeiger was dis- 
continued April 27, 1912, an English paper, the Tell 
City Journal, having been established in the same 
office February 18, 1891. For some time its editorial 
chair was filled by the late Francis Anson Evans, one 
of Perry County's few verse-writers, whose contribu- 
tions in rime drew special attention to the Journal and 
were widely copied in Indiana and elsewhere. He was 
a native Hoosier, and wrote with pleasing and wholly 
unaffected simplicity of style. 

George F. Bott, while not one of the very earliest 
settlers, came nevertheless to Tell City soon enough 
(1860) to be classed among the pioneer residents, and 
lived long enough to see realized many of its promises 
of substantial development. He was born July 23, 
1842, in Ravensburg, Germany, the home of his par- 
ents, George and Marie (Bauer) Bott. Coming with 
them to Perry County, he soon afterward entered upon 
a printer's apprenticeship at Dubuque, Iowa, and in 
1861 enlisted in Company D, First Nebraska Infantry 
(later Cavalry). His regiment was under Grant at 
Fort Donelson and Corinth, also participating in many 
other well-known battles, under Lew Wallace, and he 
was promoted to sergeant's rank in Company B. Com- 



198 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

ing back to Tell City after peace was declared, he mar- 
ried Babette Loeb and to their union seven children 
were born. From 1869 to 1885 he held the office of 
postmaster, and continued active in journalism up to 
his death, July 31, 1896. 

The name of Ferdinand Becker is linked with that 
of the Colonization Society from its beginning, as he 
was a full-blooded Switzer, born June 22, 1827, in 
Canton Glarus, the eldest son of Frederick and Eliza- 
beth (Grubermann) Becker. His collegiate education 
in both French and German was exceptionally thor- 
ough, and it was as a cultured young man that he 
came to America in 1854. Following mercantile pur- 
suits in Cincinnati and Davenport, he left Iowa in 1858 
to identify himself with the new colony of his nation 
in Indiana, and attained in Ferry County a degree of 
prominence for which his abilities well fitted him. 
From his marriage in 1861 with Mary Gnau, of Cin- 
cinnati, sprang a family of descendants who respect 
his name by honourably maintaining it. 

Michael Bettinger came as a "Forty-eighter" to the 
United States from Wurttemburg, where he was born 
September 29, 1824, the son of Martin and Juliane 
(Grisser) Bettinger. For two and a half years after 
attaining his majority he wore the uniform of mili- 
tary service, which he was glad to exchange for civilian 
garb by emigrating to Cincinnati. There he was mar- 
ried in 1849 to Elizabeth Angst, also of Wurttemburg, 
and together they came to Tell City ten years later. 
Like many others among the pioneers, he made several 
changes of occupation before settling down into the 
woolen manufacture. Of his five children three re- 
mained in Tell City, one son making a home in Cin- 
cinnati, where his activity found wider scope, especially 
in advancing the natural river interests of the entire 
Ohio Valley, a truly colossal work with which the name 
of Albert Bettinger will always be honourably con- 
nected. 

By spring-time of 1859 the desirability of an organ- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 199 

ized municipality was felt, so a petition with 124 sig- 
natures was presented by Louis Frey to the County 
Commissioners, asking that 1847 acres of the site be 
incorporated. June 28 was thereupon set for election, 
which resulted favourably, and was ratified September 
by the county. The first Board of Town Trustees, 
however, had met July 28 for organization, as follows : 
Henry Brehmer, Joseph Einsiedler, William Leopold, 
Frederick Rank, J. M. Rauscher, Charles W. Reif, 
Christian Uebelmesser, trustees ; J. C. Schening, clerk ; 
John Wegman, treasurer; William Leopold, assessor; 
Frederick Steiner, marshal. 

Naturally the records were kept for a number of 
years in German, the language in which all transac- 
tions were conducted, and a historian's research work 
therefore demands the skill of an interpreter, while 
translation does not always sufficiently repay the ef- 
fort. The urgent need of additional school facilities 
was realized, so preparations were set on foot for build- 
ing another two-story frame school house, 36 by 60 
feet, to accommodate increasing demands. Several 
vacant houses, including one of stone on Lot 129, had 
been used for school purposes, also a building in the 
market square (now the City Hall Park) where re- 
ligious services had been held. All these, as well as 
some few private schools, were carried on in both lan- 
guages and made weekly reports of their progress to 
the Colonization Society. 

Early in 1863 one of the school houses was torn down 
to check a conflagration threatening serious spread, 
and immediate preparations were made to erect an- 
other. The Town Board appropriated $600, $1,100 be- 
ing subscribed by the Colonization Society and others. 
The two-story brick edifice which for two-score years 
crowned the highest point in Ninth Street, was built at 
a cost which ultimately reached $9,000, furnishing — 
with other houses — adequate room until 1867 when the 
"North Building," also a two-story brick, was con- 
structed for $11,000. 



200 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

The first teachers in the new "South Building," dur- 
ing 1863-64, were Jacob Bollinger, Albert Ostreicher 
and Mrs. Nagel. Of these, Jacob Bollinger should be 
mentioned as probably the most profoundly educated 
man among Tell City's early instructors. Born March 
11, 1818, in Canton Aargau, he received scholastic 
training in Switzerland and taught there before com- 
ing in 1855 to America, two of his brothers having 
preceded him. He was first a teacher of instrumental 
music at Fort Smith, Arkansas, afterward Professor 
of German in a college at Lebanon, Illinois, before ac- 
cepting the first principalship of the Tell City schools. 
Later engaging in real estate, underwriting and the 
practice of law, besides serving two years as United 
States Revenue Collector, he stood throughout his life 
in Tell City as one who upheld to a marked degree the 
kulturkampf of Continental Europe. 

Likewise a native Switzer was John Baumgaertner, 
born May 1, 1843, in Canton Graubuenden, the second 
child of Simon and Anna (Fluetsch) Baumgaertner. 
Educated in the excellent common schools and also at 
a normal training school in his home town, he taught 
there until a year after his majority. He came then to 
America and in December, 1865, settled in Tell City, 
where he taught German for seven consecutive years. 
Afterward figuring in politics for two terms as town 
marshal, he then engaged in the wharfboat business, 
until his removal in 1879 to Rockport. There he con- 
ducted the Verandah Hotel until his death, and his 
children are of social and professional prominence in 
Spencer County. 

Another whose introduction to Tell City was also in 
the school room, but whose distinction was attained in 
the realm of finance, was Gustave Huthsteiner, who 
taught in the new brick shortly after Jacob Bollinger. 

He was born April 17, 1844, in Prussia, the eldest 
child of Edward and Caroline (Aschenbach) Huth- 
steiner, who came with so many other Germans in 
1848 to America, locating in Cincinnati. Here the 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 201 

younger children were born and all received an excel- 
lent education through the liberality of their father, a 
successful merchant of the Queen City. After teaching 
there for two years, Gustave Huthsteiner came at the 
age of twenty to Tell City, first clerking in a drug store 
for a short time before again becoming a teacher. 

This experience, added to three months of military 
service in Company K, Fifth Ohio Cavalry, taught him 
to read human nature well and developed those traits 
of logical self-control which made him in maturer 
years Tell City's leading financier and a strong figure 
in Perry County politics, serving two consecutive terms 
as County Treasurer and being elected in 1878 as Rep- 
resentative to the Legislature. Twice married — first 
to Pauline, daughter of John and Pauline (Stadlin) 
Weber, who died December 25, 1883 ; and some years 
later to Louise Ludwig, also of Tell City — he left at 
his death, February 1, 1902, a considerable family, of 
whom some still live in their native town and devote 
themselves to her well-being, as a privilege no less 
than an hereditary obligation to the name of Huth- 
steiner. 

At the time of the founding of the place and so 
long as incoming colonies continued to arrive, every 
branch of business was extremely prosperous. The 
newcomers invariably brought with them goodly sums 
in gold, laid up to be of use in their new home, and 
the large amounts of coin paid out of land, labour, 
farm products, etc., had the effect usual in new com- 
munities of raising the price of commodities. 

But when the last immigrants had come and had 
sent their gold into the channels of trade, reaction set 
in, furthered by the immense influence of the War Be- 
tween the States. Many failed, and returned to their 
former homes ; by rigid economy others pulled through 
until better times came again ; some few, by good judg- 
ment, skill and energy, prospered even during the most 
stringent financial distress of the sixties. 



202 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Truly marvellous has been the tenacity of life dis- 
played by some of Tell City's earliest and still lead- 
ing manufacturing establishments, and her prosperity 
reflects brilliantly upon the persistent industry, fru- 
gality and thrift of her German-Swiss people. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

IMMEDIATELY BEFORE THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. 

The history of Perry County in the earlier half of the 
'sixties, like that of the nation at large, is practically 
the story of the War Between the States, besides which 
all other occurrences during 1861 to 1865 shrink to in- 
significance. And, for the sake of clear understanding, 
let it be recognized that the phrase employed to desig- 
nate the conflict in question is the only one among all 
those in use — Civil War, War of Secession, Rebellion, 
etc., — which is at once of complete accuracy and abso- 
lute impartiality. 

The late Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts, 
wrote : "The term Civil War signifies nothing. There 
have been innumerable civil wars, and as a matter of 
general history it is manifestly absurd for us to appro- 
priate the term to a single civil war of our own." James 
Bryce, the English historian of international reputa- 
tion, British Ambassador to Washington, 1912-1915, in 
his "American Commonwealths," speaks of the United 
States as: "A Union of Commonwealths * * * they 
have over their citizens an authority which is their own 
and not delegated by the central Government. They — 
that is, the older ones among them — existed before it. 
They could exist without it. Seven states seceded and 
confederated without resorting to arms, regarding 
secession as their court of last resort, and simply one 
among what they considered other equal rights under 
a Constitution whose interpretation, until then, had 
never been established on those points. Thus, the war 
was not — exclusively — 'of secession.' " 

George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, 
James Madison and James Monroe — our first five 



204 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Presidents — were 'rebels,' inasmuch as they conducted 
armed resistance against a power of which they ar- 
mitted themselves subjects up to the signing of a cer- 
tain document, July 4, 1776. The Southrons construed 
their doctrine of State Sovereignty as justifying them 
in maintaining its claim by force, yet never placed 
themselves in 'rebellion' to any authority they had pre- 
viously recognized. 

In saying the War Between the States, the noun 
'States' is used in a collective sense, exclusively, imply- 
ing no war between individual commonwealths. The 
official titles of the two contending parties involved 
were the United States of America and the Confederate 
States of America, and the historical perspective gained 
through fifty years of national peace shows conclusive- 
ly that 

"We banish our anger forever. 

When we laurel the graves of our dead," 

who were all heroes of principle during the controversy 
which the future shall call The War Between the 
States. 

It could not be expected that merely moving across 
Mason and Dixon's Line would work any mysterious 
sea-change in the temperament of the Virginians, 
Marylanders or Carolinians who had transplanted 
their family stock to Hoosier soil, and Perry County 
contained many sturdy Old Line Whigs, conscientious 
believers in "States Rights." Nor had departure from 
their 'stern and rock-bound coast' modified the some- 
what austere ideals of those New Englanders who had 
sought homes in the Middle West ; and among the resi- 
dents of Eastern descent were Abolitionists of the most 
pronounced type. Cavalier and Puritan faced each 
other, as in centuries before, and it is to the everlast- 
ing credit of Perry County that local controversy was 
never more than a battle of opinions, couched in elo- 
quence of greater or less degree. 

When the day dawned bringing actual strife over an 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 205 

issue involving the perpetuity of our national existence, 
Perry County forgot her petty quarrels, sending away 
her sons, shoulder to shoulder, — her own native-born 
lads, American through ancestry reaching to Colonial 
days, alongside her adopted children of other nation- 
alities, French, Belgian, Irish, Scotch, English and 
German. In all, 3,558 men are credited by the Adjut- 
ant-General to Perry County; a total surpassed by no 
other county in Indiana in proportion to her population. 

That the tide of popular opinion in the county had 
begun to turn toward the Union, and against its pos- 
sible disintegration, is placed upon record beyond 
question by the tabulated vote in the presidential elec- 
tions of 1856 and 1860. For Buchanan and Breckin- 
ridge, 1,066 votes were cast, opposed by 632 for Fill- 
more and Donelson, a Democratic plurality of 434. In 
1860 the total vote was greater by 441 than that of four 
years previous, 244 of these ballots being in the two- 
year-old Swiss colony of Tell City, for the first time a 
factor in county politics. The double split in the 
Democratic party, which placed three of their candi- 
dates in the field, had in that particular a parallel fifty- 
two years later in the Republican party. Lincoln and 
Hamlin polled 1,026 votes ; Douglas and Johnson, 947 ; 
Bell and Everett, 160; Breckinridge and Lane, 6; a 
plurality of 79 for the Republican candidates. 

The campaign was in every respect the most exciting 
one the county had experienced, owing to the extra- 
ordinary division of sentiment, even among members 
of the same families, brothers voting opposite tickets, 
wives adhering to principles directly contrary to the 
politics of their husbands. 'Pole-raisings' had fur- 
nished occasion for large public gatherings during the 
summer in all sections of the county, the flags being 
made at home by the women, and in some instances 
formally presented by some chosen fair one. Con- 
spicuously located at Cannelton, within full view of 
passing steamboats, were three of these flaunting 
standards, only the Breckinridge party being too weak 



206 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

to display their emblem. The Bell pole was the tallest 
in Indiana, its height 215 feet, but the Lincoln flag was 
by far the largest, representing thousands of patient 
stitches from the women who wrought its stars and 
stripes with patriotic needles. Joshua B. Huckeby, an 
elector on the Bell and Everett Constitutional Union 
ticket, whose platform consisted of the vague sentence : 
"The constitution of the country, the union of the 
states, the enforcement of the laws," was subjected to 
much neighbourly chaffing, because his wife refused 
her assistance toward making his party flag, but 
worked ardently upon the Lincoln banner, their two 
sons voting with the Republicans. 

The only English newspaper in the county was the 
Cannelton Reporter, (the Tell City Helvetia being 
printed in the German language,) and its columns dur- 
ing 1860 show the strong Democratic sentiment exist- 
ing, although none of its utterances could be classed as 
disloyal from a Northern standpoint, Jacob B. May- 
nard, its editor, continually expressing his belief in 
some sort of satisfactory adjustment between the two 
sections of the country, while always warmly favour- 
able toward Southern principles. 

The election of Lincoln by a strictly sectional ma- 
jority in November, followed within six weeks by 
South Carolina's ordinance of secession, brought about 
a situation too highly charged with intense partisan- 
ship to permit a disregard of conditions, and on De- 
cember 27, 1860, the Reporter printed a call for a public 
meeting of citizens on the opening day of the New 
Year, at Cannelton, its designated object, — "in view of 
the present distracted condition of the country * * * 
the purpose of giving expression of our unwavering 
devotion to the Union in its most forcible form." 
Every township and each political party found repre- 
sentation among the signatures which numbered fifty- 
six, just the same as of those immortal "Signers" who 
appended their names to the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 207 

Pursuant to this call, at one o'clock, Tuesday after- 
noon, January 1, 1861, an assemblage was gathered 
which tested the capacity of Mozart Hall, the largest 
meeting place in Cannelton. Hamilton Smith was 
made chairman, and Charles H. Mason and Jacob B. 
Maynard the secretaries. Upon motion of John James 
Key it was carried that the chair appoint a committee 
of seven to draft resolutions upon public affairs, which 
should be submitted to the meeting for action thereon. 
Job Hatfield, chairman; Ballard Smith, William Mc- 
Kinley, Sr., Dr. James Foster, Andrew P. Batson, 
Allen Hyde and Dr. L Hargis formed the com- 
mittee, during whose absence for deliberation speeches 
were delivered by Joshua B. Huckeby, Charles H. 
Mason, Jacob B. Maynard and Hamilton Smith. Each 
address was a stirring appeal to loyalty, frequently 
broken by tumultuous applause, yet all exhibited some 
doubt as to the best course to be pursued in the emerg- 
ency of the further secession of Southern states. 

On their return, the committee presented a series of 
six resolutions, the first four merely pledging the at- 
tachment of the county to the Federal Union ; consent- 
ing to any honourable concessions to preserve the 
Union; recommending the repeal of personal liberty 
bills ; and deprecating that peaceably disposed citizens 
of Perry County had been subjected to hostile treat- 
ment in the South. These were received with demon- 
strations of general satisfaction, but the reading of 
Resolutions Five and Six made it instantly evident that 
the parting of the ways had come. The series ended 
with the two following clauses : 

"Resolved, That if by reason of the existing unhappy 
difficulties the Union should be sundered, which may 
God forbid, we hereby pledge ourselves to the people of 
the border states, both slave and free, to co-operate 
with them in any measure that will secure to us the 
Federal Union, and to all our citizens the rights, priv- 
ileges, liberties and immunities which we have under 
our present noble Constitution, believing that if the 



208 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

heart of our Nation can be saved, that, sooner or later, 
new vigour and strength will be sent out to its ex- 
tremities. 

"Resolved, That if no concessions and compromises 
can be obtained and a disunion shall be unfortunately- 
made between the Northern and Southern States, then 
the commercial, manufacturing and agricultural inter- 
ests of the people of this county require us to say that 
we can not consent that the Ohio River shall be the 
boundary line of the contending nations, and we earn- 
estly desire that if a line is to be drawn between the 
North and the South that line shall be found north of 
us." 

William McKinley, Sr., of the committee, recorded 
himself in opposition to these two sections, but the 
adoption of the series as a unit was moved by George 
W. Patterson and the motion received several seconds. 
Charles H. Mason, however, proposed an amendment, 
carried after some discussion, by which each resolu- 
tion should be voted upon separately. As a result, the 
first five were unanimously adopted, but the final clause 
elicited fiery discussion from both sides. Joshua B. 
Huckeby, Charles H. Mason, Dr. Harmon S. Clark, 
Thomas W. Taylor and Henry P. Brazee, Jr., opposed 
its adoption, Ballard Smith, Job Hatfield, Jacob B. 
Maynard and Doctor Hargis debating in its favour. 
After extended and heated argument, the cries of 
"Question! Question!" at length procured a vote, the 
result announced by the chair being: For the resolu- 
tion, 99 ; against the resolution, 55 ; many present not 
voting. Thunders of applause greeted the verdict, 
which was followed by immediate adjournment. 

In its next issue (January 3), which detailed the 
foregoing, the Reporter said editorially: "We have 
been told that the Southern feeling would expend itself 
in bluster and brag; that it meant nothing — all would 
subside. We have never believed it; we have warned 
our readers against this delusion. Terrible times are 
upon us — fearful times; a mighty nation is going to 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 209 

pieces, and if we would not be involved in calamities 
beggaring description, let us take manly ground and 
place Indiana in a position where the wild waves of 
fanaticism can not engulf us. * * * The Ohio River 
must never be the boundary line between contending 
nations. We have always lived upon terms of friend- 
ship with our Kentucky neighbours; Kentucky by no 
act of hers has ever shown any spirit but that of the 
right ; Indiana has never passed a personal liberty bill ; 
Perry County has ever been true to the letter and spirit 
of the Constitution, and if the time should ever come 
to trace on the map of our country the boundaries of 
new Republics, the Ohio River can not be one of those 
boundaries — never ! The line must go north of us and 
the further north the better." 

The proclamation of President Buchanan setting 
apart Friday, January 4, as a day of fasting and pray- 
er for deliverance from national calamity, was not 
generally regarded at Cannelton in the proper spirit of 
its intention, but to the credit of many God-fearing 
citizens be it told that solemn services of intercession 
were held by the clergymen of the Episcopal and Roman 
Catholic congregations, the Rev. William Louis Githens 
in St. Luke's Church, and the Rev. Michael Marendt in 
St. Michael's Church, both pastors heading their flocks 
in dutiful observance of the doctrinal precept, "to pay 
respectful obedience to the Civil Authority regularly 
and legitimately constituted ;" the same consistent con- 
servatism which enabled their national systems to 
maintain unbroken organic union through the years of 
strife which disrupted practically every other religious 
body in America. 

There is little question that the prevailing sentiment 
in the county at this time was pro-Southern, not un- 
natural through commercial interests and intimate per- 
sonal relations with the South, it being generally felt 
that in the contingency of the Union's dissolution the 
line of demarcation must go north instead of south of 

(14) 



210 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Perry County and not make the Ohio River a national 
boundary. 

On the forty-sixth anniversary of Jackson's victory 
at New Orleans, styled in the Cannelton Reporter "the 
Glorious Eighth of January," 1861, in Polk's Bottom, 
(now Tobinsport) a joint assembly of citizens from 
Perry County and Breckinridge County, Kentucky, was 
held as a Union Meeting. For chairman the choice fell 
upon Colonel David Rodman Murray, Cloverport's fore- 
most citizen, a strikingly handsome man, of conspicu- 
ous personal loyalty to the Federal Government. He 
had been thrice married; first to a Miss Alexander, 
secondly to Eliza Huston, and thirdly to 'the Widow 
Crittenden,' (Anna Maria Allen) daughter of the gal- 
lant Captain John Allen, who fell at the Battle of the 
Raisin River. James H. Gibbon, of Perry County, was 
secretary, and upon motion by Daniel L. Armstrong, a 
committee of six, equally divided, was appointed to 
frame the sense of the meeting; Jacob B. Maynard, 
George W. Patterson and Hiram Carr, of Indiana; 
William Vest, Daniel Hambleton and Dr. J. F. Chris- 
tian, of Kentucky. 

The preamble and resolutions presented and unani- 
mously adopted, were practically identical with the 
Cannelton document of a week previous, save for the 
insertion of Breckinridge County's name alongside that 
of Perry, and in the closing sentence of the final clause, 
which expressed the wish that a dividing line — if 
forced upon the two counties — should be found "North 
or South of us," a pledge to the sister interests of both. 

The entire assembly were lavishly entertained as 
guests of the neighbourhood farmers, one of the ear- 
liest recorded instances of that splendid hospitality 
which the same families maintain as a standard in their 
homes today. Hundreds partook of their bounteous 
cheer, hundreds more could have been filled, with plenty 
still on hand. The boundless profusion of good things 
prepared by the whole-souled people of Polk's Bottom 
was likened by the editor of the Reporter (not always 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 211 

scripturally-minded) to Pharaoh's table during the 
seven years of plenty in the land of Egypt. 

Nor was Breckinridge County lacking in generosity. 
After adjournment the citizens of Cloverport invited 
all the Indianians present to cross the river and par- 
take of Kentucky hospitality, which was spread before 
them with unstinted hand. Colonel Murray presided 
as informal toast-master, while mutual healths were 
pledged, and the day — like the historic eve of Waterloo 
— was closed with a "Grand Union Ball." No Hoosier 
or Corncracker bard has immortalized this in verse, as 
Byron did the Duchess of Richmond's function at 
Brussels, though with the beauty and chivalry of In- 
diana and Kentucky gathered 

"To chase the glowing hours with flying feet," 
it is easy to believe that 

"All went merry as a marriage bell." 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

BEGINNING OF HOSTILITIES. 

With breathless interest the action of Lincoln's ad- 
ministration was awaited during the first two months 
of 1861. Numerous citizens of Perry County were 
Southerners by birth and rearing, many more were of 
Southern descent, a part of whose heritage was a warm 
affection toward those states where their blood rela- 
tives yet resided, and they sincerely felt that injustice 
had been shown the South. In contrast, there were 
ardent Abolitionists who favoured a death blow to 
slavery while the iron was hot, though their number 
was fewer than those who deprecated any interference 
therewith. Probably the majority of all parties were 
willing to make any honourable concession that would 
preserve the Union. 

President Lincoln's refusal to enforce the carriage 
of supplies to Major Anderson in Fort Sumter was 
vehemently denounced by many men in Perry County, 
but the editor of the Reporter said on April : "If Mr. 
Lincoln will so manage affairs as to avoid a fight, his 
administration will be a success for which he shall have 
our applause." No telegraph wires had yet penetrated 
the county, and only four weekly mails were brought 
by the packet Grey Eagle between Louisville and 
Evansville, so it was not until two days after the fall 
of Sumter — or April 14 — that the exciting news 
reached Cannelton. 

Sunday morning though it was, crowds of men col- 
lected on the streets. Loud talk could be heard in every 
group, threats and prophecies bandied to and fro for 
some few hours, or until the time for customary reli- 
gious worship brought a close to the turbulent scene, 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 213 

and excitement subsided into quiet. At every landing 
from Rono to Troy the tidings occasioned the same 
consternation, spreading like a swift prairie fire from 
the river bank out into the farthest township hills. 
Everywhere it kindled fierce indignation among the 
husky farmers, so that Monday morning found all 
spring labour forgotten in anxiety to hurry to the 
towns for fuller details. Newspapers were eagerly 
sought and were read aloud to avid listeners. That 
week's Reporter observed : "We do not care to discuss 
the legal right of the Government to Fort Sumter, and 
willingly admit all that can be argued in that way ; but 
were Fort Sumter a thousand times more valuable than 
it is, it would be purchased at a dear price if it cost one 
drop of American blood shed in civil war." 

As part of the former militia equipment assigned to 
Perry County, fifty-nine muskets belonging to the State 
remained in charge of Daniel L. Armstrong, Auditor, 
and agreeable to the orders of Governor Morton had 
been boxed up ready for shipment to Indianapolis. 
During the night of Thursday, April 18, these were 
secretly removed from the Court House by unknown 
parties, which caused no little excitement when the dis- 
covery of the abstraction was made. Many citizens 
were brought before Esquire John C. Wade for ex- 
amination, but nothing could be elicited giving the 
slightest clue toward detection of anyone involved, 
though the guns were generally believed to be in town 
and a reward for their return was offered by the 
Auditor. A humourous communication printed the fol- 
lowing week, written as if by the muskets in council 
assembled, signed by such names as Heavybreech, 
Shootquick, Greyflint, Surecock, Primingwire, Ramrod, 
and Breechpin did much to relieve the tension, causing 
the matter to be treated in the light of a practical joke, 
although it was some time before the circumstances 
connected with the removal were divulged. 

The boxes had been carried by certain picked men 
from the Court House to the wharf -boat, where they 



214 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

were left, as if to be put aboard a steamboat. Directly 
after these parties had returned to their homes, an- 
other group, by prearrangement, loaded the guns into 
skiffs as if to cross the river into Kentucky. But in- 
stead, the oarsmen turned into the mouth of Cassel- 
berry Creek, the Ohio being then at its spring height, 
and the boats were rowed to an agreed landing-point 
at the home of Joshua B. Huckeby. The grounds of his 
property, "Virginia Place," sloping south to the bank 
of the creek, afforded a secluded spot for disembarka- 
tion, and the muskets speedily became 'concealed 
weapons' beneath the plank floor of a woodshed, where 
they lay sequestered until long after all commotion 
had died away. 

In the wish to maintain uninterrupted the neigh- 
bourly and friendly relations essential to peace and 
prosperity of citizens living on both banks of the river, 
communications were exchanged between Cannelton 
and Hawesville whose result was a joint meeting held 
April 30, in the latter town, by a committee compris- 
ing Charles H. Mason, Ebenezer Wilber, James A. 
Burkett, Joseph F. Sulzer and David Richards, of In- 
diana; Samuel McAdams, William Sterett, James R. 
Jennings, William Mason and Joseph W. Hughes, of 
Kentucky. Realizing that amicable intercourse be- 
tween the two communities was in more danger of in- 
terruption from unwarranted acts and indiscreet con- 
versation of irresponsible persons than from any other 
causes, both sides mutually pledged the efforts of all 
good citizens in each town toward suppressing the 
same. It was declared that even should there be a 
state of public hostility between the two sections, there 
was no inconsistency in observing strictest regard for 
the right of private persons and property, so that 
whether peace or war should prevail, both towns were 
obligated to discountenance all aggressions upon the 
private rights of either. 

Despite these cordial phrases, which bore the ring 
of sincerity so far as the immediate border was in- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 215 

volved, popular sentiment against the extreme South 
was growing in Perry County, voiced in energetic 
language by the Reporter's editorial of May 2. 

"The Southern Confederacy seems bent on pursuing 
a policy that will not only unite the North, but enrage 
it. It steps from stupendous follies to stupendous 
crimes by strides which amaze the present and throw 
the past into the shade, which future historians will 
write down as acts of political insanity without parallel 
in the history of nations. The attack upon Fort Sum- 
ter was criminal in the extreme, and, inasmuch as it 
inaugurated the war, places upon the Southern Con- 
federacy terrible responsibilities that will weigh the 
more heavily as time wears on and the gloom of war 
settles down upon the Nation." 

Looking toward possible emergencies calling for 
local protection, troops were organized at different 
points in the county, under various names, such as 
Perry Rifles, Newcomb Guards, Rome Legion, Hickory 
Rangers, Union Grays, Anderson Guards, Oil Rifles, 
Clark Sharpshooters, Tell City Rifles, Deutscher Jaeger, 
Troy Artillery, Emmet Guards, Hoosier Wildcats, 
Tobin Guards, Cannelton Artillery, Voltiguers, Union 
Guards, Tell City Artillery, Lyon Artillery and Oil 
Grays ; twenty companies in all, the majority of which 
were mustered in during 1861, though 1862 and 1863 
each saw the organization of two companies. Many 
men who first served in this home guard enlisted later 
in regiments for outside field duty, though all whose 
names appear on any muster-roll as sworn in and hon- 
ourably discharged are accredited to Perry County by 
the Adjutant-General's report for Indiana. All are 
classified as the Fifth Regiment, Indiana Legion, of 
which Charles H. Mason was commissioned Colonel in 
June, 1861. Its other officers during the war were 
Charles Fournier, colonel; Jesse Esarey and James 
Lees, lieutenant-colonels ; John Clark Esarey, Cornelius 
Leitz, Samuel Wilde and Joseph F. Sulzer, adjutants; 
F. L. Heik, Julius Fournier and August Pfafflin, quar- 



216 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

termasters ; Magnus Brucker, surgeon ; Christian Kiel- 
horn, paymaster; Peter Ludwig, judge-advocate. 

Among the colonists who had located at the vigour- 
ous young settlement of Tell City were many sturdy 
Switzers who had seen service in the army of their 
Fatherland, and of such was formed the earliest com- 
pany taking its departure from the county for enlist- 
ment. Commanded by Captain Louis Frey, who had 
been chiefly instrumental in recruiting the force, the 
men left May 17, 1861, on the steamer Grey Eagle, a 
large crowd assembling at the river bank, to see them 
off, with flaunting banners, firing guns, cheers of en- 
couragement and tears of farewell. Leaving the boat 
at New Albany they went by rail to Indianapolis, where 
for several weeks they found it difficult to get into the 
service. Some at last came home, others went to Cin- 
cinnati and enlisted there, still others lingering at the 
capital until finally accepted. Nearly all eventually 
succeeded in entering the ranks of their adopted 
country, showing a determined persistence most credit- 
able to their manly bravery. 

By early summer flag-poles in every township dis- 
played the Stars and Stripes, and, as might be expect- 
ed, the wave of patriotism surged high on Independ- 
ence Day, its hallowed memories rendered doubly dear 
through peril. At several points in Perry County the 
day was observed by elaborate popular demonstrations, 
the most imposing being naturally that at the county 
seat. Before daybreak people from all directions were 
pouring into Cannelton, and by ten o'clock in the morn- 
ing not less than three thousand were assembled in the 
grove at "Wilber Farm," generously lent for the oc- 
casion by Ebenezer Wilber. Here three companies of 
the Legion were encamped. Their white tents, around 
which muskets were stacked when not on parade, pre- 
sented a picture of military life with which many in 
the crowd who then looked upon it for the first time, 
were afterward to become too sadly familiar. Occa- 
sional salutes from a five-pound cannon, marshaled by 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 217 

a squad of volunteer gunners, lent the realism of artil- 
lery to the scene. 

The inspiration of fine music was supplied by the 
German Brass Band, who rendered appropriate na- 
tional airs for the formal review, which took place at 
ten o'clock. Before Colonel Charles H. Mason, at the 
head of his staff, all mounted and uniformed, passed 
the companies of Captain Alfred Vaughan, Captain 
Charles Fournier and Captain Henry N. Wales, besides 
the cavalry rangers of Captain Daniel L. Armstrong, 
who extended their friendly 'charge' into Tobin Town- 
ship directly after the brief remarks of commendation 
which Colonel Mason pronounced from his saddle in 
closing the review. This ceremony was succeeded by 
the oration of the day, delivered byJ^ljomasJamesdeJa 
Hunt and reckoned among his hearers as a masterpiece 
"of brilliant structure and polished delivery. A boun- 
teous dinner under the shade of the trees was served 
at noon, followed by dancing on a large platform tem- 
porarily erected. At five o'clock another review of the 
troops brought the day to a happy close. The celebra- 
tion at Polk's Bottom drew an attendance almost as 
large from Tobin Township and from Kentucky, and 
its features were along the same general plan, with Job 
Hatfield, of Perry County, and Colonel David Murray, 
of Breckinridge County, as orators. Other picnics and 
observances elsewhere also marked the day. 

In the course of this month probably four-score men 
enlisted outside the county, chiefly in the Twenty-third 
Infantry (Colonel Sanderson) at New Albany, others 
(among whom was Captain George Perry De Weese of 
the Rome Legion) in the First Cavalry at Mount Ver- 
non. Such action was the result of some unpleasant 
and deplorable petty jealousies as to commanding offi- 
cers, which interferred with united action at home. On 
Sunday, August 4, however, the first full company, 
seventy strong, left the county, under Harvey Johnson, 
captain; James A. Burkett, first lieutenant; Thomas 
James de la Hunt, second lieutenant, and were mustered 



218 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

into service August 30, at Indianapolis, as Company F, 
Twenty-sixth Regiment. It was practically made up 
of Cannelton men, so their departure was an occasion 
of pride mingled with sadness, the town and vicinity 
turning out en masse to bid them God-speed. The 
Perry Rifles and Newcomb Guards formed an escort of 
honour to the wharf, to board the steamer Diligent, 
which steamed away up the river, flags flying, handker- 
chiefs waving and band playing "The Girl I Left Be- 
hind Me." The war had really begun. 

Only a month later the scene was repeated, the troop 
which had been recruited through the county by John 
P. Dunn, of Troy, and Henry T. Murtha, of Derby, 
assembling September 6, at Cannelton, to set out for 
the front. They encamped that night below town, and 
the next day (Saturday) were entertained as guests 
of the Cannelton Home Guards, a farewell ball being 
given in the evening at Mozart Hall in their honour. 
Sunday morning a large crowd gathered at the camp- 
ground, where the troops formed before their tents and 
listened to a speech full of good advice from Jacob B. 
Maynard. 

His fervid editorials in the Reporter had done much 
toward rousing patriotism and encouraging enlistment 
all over the county, and on September 5, he had writ- 
ten : "We are not one of those who believe the struggle 
is to be brief, but we do believe in the ultimate triumph 
of the Government over all its foes. If it turn out 
otherwise, then our fathers toiled in vain, the Declara- 
tion of Independence is a sham, the Constitution a farce 
in so many acts, and the records of our glorious and 
happy past may as well be gathered up for consignment 
to eternal oblivion. But it can not be so. Patriot 
hearts are not yet beating the funeral march of con- 
stitutional liberty. We confess that our gallant ship is 
drifting upon a lee-shore ; we admit the terrific realities 
of the storm ; but we are not engulfed beneath the wild 
waves of rebellion. The star of our destiny has not set 
in ignominious defeat; brave men are flocking round 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 219 

our flag, and above the fierce ravings of the storm, 
shouts of 'Onward !' are heard from the armies of the 
Union." 

Toward nine o'clock the line of march was taken up 
to the wharf, and the men embarked on the Commer- 
cial, the regular Cincinnati and Memphis packet, com- 
manded by a Canneltonian, Captain S. W. Archer. 
After reaching Indianapolis they were mustered in, 
October 8, as Company D, of the Thirty-fifth Infantry, 
(with which the Sixty-first was consolidated later.) 
John P. Dunn, captain ; August G. Tassin, first lieuten- 
ant; Henry T. Murtha, second lieutenant; were the 
original officers of the company when sworn into 
service. 

Steamboating on the Ohio was at its zenith when the 
war broke out, but the most memorable sight of its 
day and an incident almost without parallel in Cannel- 
ton's history took place on Tuesday afternoon, Septem- 
ber 17, when a fleet of thirteen steamboats headed by 
the flagship N. W. Thomas, under command of Com- 
modore Philips, of Cincinnati, landed at the levee, oc- 
cupying the entire water-front and presenting a re- 
markable spectacle. The sound of so many whistles 
and bands of music drew everybody to the bank as the 
flotilla rounded the bend, the Newcomb Guards, under 
Sergeant Wilde, and the Cannelton Artillery, under 
Captain Dunwoody, hurriedly mobilizing in time to 
welcome with salutes and cheers the anchoring of so 
many vessels. Business was practically suspended in 
all lines except the handling of coal, the fleet having in 
tow one hundred and sixty barges and demanding a 
fuel supply of twenty-five thousand bushels. Most of 
this was furnished by the American Cannel Coal Com- 
pany, although under some protest from the manager, 
D wight Newcomb, who objected to such absolute deple- 
tion of his stock on hand. Several pieces of heavy 
ordnance on board the flagship, which had landed 
directly in front of his residence, "Oak Hall," backed 
up by three hundred splendid-looking artillerymen and 



220 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

infantry may have contributed toward overcoming his 
opposition, since the balance of coal needed to complete 
the quota called for by Commodore Philips was quickly 
procured from the Trabue mines at Hawesville. 

Two other full companies left Perry County before 
the close of the year, the departure of each being at- 
tended by hospitable and patriotic farewells. On Sat- 
urday evening, October 18, a fine banquet was given 
in the Masonic Hall at Troy, by the citizens of that 
town, in honour of fifty-one men who boarded the 
steamer Eugene at 4 o'clock the following morning, 
bound for Camp Joe Holt at Jeffersonville, where they 
were mustered in, November 21, as Company E, Forty- 
ninth Infantry, Edward B. Cutler, captain; Hiram 
Evans, first lieutenant; William A. Jordan, second 
lieutenant. Twenty-five other men, recruited by Sur- 
geon Magnus Brucker, had left Troy a fortnight earlier. 

Tell City had already sent many of her sons into the 
ranks, beginning with the troop which Captain Louis 
Frey had formed in May, so no possible lack of ardent 
patriotism is indicated by the circumstance that hers 
was the latest company from the three towns to be 
mustered in during the opening year of the war. Theo- 
dore Pleisch and Nicholas Steinauer spent September 
and October in securing recruits, and on November 12, 
their company, ninety strong, the largest single body 
of men which Perry County had thus far contributed, 
left Tell City for Indianapolis, after rousing tributes 
had been paid them by their fellow-citizens. Amid 
cheering shouts of "Hoch!", "Prosit!" and "Aufwied- 
ersehen!" the steamer Eugene bore them away to 
Evansville where the Sixtieth Regiment was organized, 
of which they formed Company A, Theodore Pleisch, 
captain; Nicholas Steinauer, first lieutenant; Ernst 
Kipp, second lieutenant. With others they were soon 
transferred to Indianapolis and the regiment was there 
filled out, its first duty being as guard for the Confed- 
erate prisoners held at Camp Morton during the winter 
months of 1861-62. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

BENEVOLENT AND PATRIOTIC WORK OF WOMEN. 

Perry County's patriotic women did not confine 
themselves merely to ornamental displays of sentiment 
toward the soldiers, but the same vigourous character- 
istics which women of the Revolutionary period had 
manifested came forth a century later in their descend- 
ants, and the approach of winter found organized so- 
cieties for sending practical comforts to the men at the 
front, besides administering relief to such families they 
had left behind as were in circumstances of need. 
Knitting-needles flashed in many a parlour, and the 
Ladies' Patriotic Aid Association, of which Mrs. 
Charles H. Mason (Rachel Huckeby) was president, 
supplied to the Quartermaster-General at Indianapolis 
many undergarments, socks, mittens and comforts of 
regulation pattern, which represented the generosity of 
Cannelton and Tell City women in time and labour. 

All this was in addition to the many boxes of home- 
prepared food, substantials and delicacies, with little 
individual luxuries, shipped direct to the Perry County 
regiments in camp. Several of these were attached to 
the Army of the Frontier, in Missouri, and in January, 
1862, Lieutenant George Perry De Weese, of Rome, 
who had enlisted in the First Cavalry, was appointed 
Assistant Adjutant-General for the Military District of 
Southeastern Missouri. 

In October and November of 1861, Joseph Whittaker, 
of Cannelton, co-operated with John Sumner, of Spen- 
cer County, in raising a company designed for the 
Sixty-second Regiment, with rendezvous at Rockport. 
Their efforts were successful, but when the men were 
mustered into service, February 24, 1862, it was as 



222 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Company G, of the Fifty-third Regiment ; Joseph Whit- 
taker, captain ; John Donnelly, first lieutenant ; Michael 
Fitzpatrick, second lieutenant. 

As a river county, more or less directly affected by 
any events of the war along the Ohio or its tributaries, 
deep local interest was felt in the campaign prosecuted 
by the army and navy forces, under General Grant and 
Admiral Foote respectively, on the Cumberland and the 
Tennessee, whose courses parallel one another about 
ten miles apart for some seventy miles from Where 
both streams empty into the Ohio. Many Perry 
County troops were engaged in the attack on Fort 
Henry and Fort Donelson, so the news of the capture 
occasioned great rejoicing. 

Under command of the irascible General Nelson, 
(who had exhibited while landing at Cannelton for coal, 
that ill-controlled temper which caused him to shoot 
General Jefferson C. Davis in the Gait House at Louis- 
ville some time afterward,) a numerous transport-fleet 
had gone down the river only some few days earlier, 
many of these boats now returning laden with sick and 
wounded soldiery, and there was talk — which never 
materialized — of establishing a military hospital at 
Cannelton. On Sunday morning, February 28, the 
steamer Argonaut passed up, carrying the captured 
General Simon Bolivar Buckner and three hundred 
other Confederate prisoners bound for Indianapolis. 
Adjutant Thomas James de la Hunt, who was detailed 
in personal charge of General Buckner, disembarked at 
Cannelton for a few days' furlough before returning 
to his regiment in Missouri. 

Early in April much excitement developed through 
the fact coming to light that private letters passing 
through the Cannelton post-office had been opened 
without authority by persons professing to be spies of 
the government, in search of evidence against citizens 
suspected of disloyalty to the Union. The charge was 
a grave one, either way, but when finally sifted down, 
it became evident that personal animosity more than 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 223 

national sentiment had instigated the accusation. No 
denial was ever made that some letters had been 
opened, but those tampered with were the business 
correspondence passing between non-resident property- 
owners, then living in the Confederacy, and the Can- 
nelton lawyer who held their power of attorney. 

This commotion quickly died out when the tidings 
came of the Battle of Pittsburg Landing with its tale 
of bloodshed, and a delegation of physicians and volun- 
teer nurses was immediately formed in Cannelton to 
hasten to the battle-field and alleviate the suffering. 
Dr. Harmon S. Clark, surgeon with rank of captain 
in the Indiana Legion, headed the staff. Dr. William 
P. Drumb, Dr. Charles L. Soyez, John C. Wade, Peter 
Schmuck, John G. Hathorn, Joseph M. Gest, William 
McKinley, Sr., and Dwight Newcomb being his aides. 
Besides liberal contributions of cash and supplies, large 
quantities of linen — sheets, pillow-cases, shirts, ban- 
dages, ets., — were speedily prepared by the women and 
forwarded to camp. On the return home of these 
benevolent volunteers. Doctor Clark delivered a public 
address (afterward published by request in the Re- 
porter) describing their experiences, before a large 
audience in the Methodist Church. 

The Fourth of July was celebrated in the customary 
manner all over the county, ushered in by ringing of 
bells, salutes of musketry and cannon, the display of 
bunting, and largely attended picnics. In the grove 
near Cannelton, Jacob B. Maynard delivered an oration, 
Master Huntington Smith (son of Hamilton Smith and 
nephew of Judge Huntington) read the Declaration of 
Independence, and the Legion gave a dress parade, 
Colonel Charles Fournier as commandant. 

Renewed attempts for volunteers were made, follow- 
ing the national call of July 2 for 300,000 men. Cap- 
tain W. H. Cornelius procured several enlistments at 
a war meeting in Cannelton later in the month and 
also on August 16, and a bounty fund of $300 for the 
first company leaving the county under the call was 



224 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

raised in a few hours at Cannelton by popular sub- 
scription. In Anderson Township Captain Andrew P. 
Batson had reorganized the "Hickory Rangers" and 
some of these enrolled for the war. A native of Swe- 
den, October 16, 1824, and one of very few of such na- 
tionality in Perry County, Captain Batson came of sea- 
faring parentage (Andrew and Magdalene (Dalsta) 
Batson) and in his boyhood had encountered many of 
a sailor's perils. He used to relate how upon the sec- 
ond of several voyages to Rio de Janeiro he was cruelly 
flogged with the cat-o'-nine tails for his inability to 
discover the captain's spectacles, which that officer 
later found over his own forehead. But a life on the 
rolling deep was not without its pleasure and romance, 
for at the age of twenty-two, when second officer on 
the ship "Ondickee" of Philadelphia, after sailing for 
two years from New Orleans under the Stars and 
Stripes, he met as a passenger from Sweden, Pru- 
dence Nixson, to whom he was married December 15, 
1846. They arrived in Perry County on Christmas 
Eve of that year, and in 1847 located on the farm in 
Anderson Township where twelve children were born 
to them and where the remainder of their lives was 
spent. 

In the eastern end of the county William O'Neill and 
Titus Cummings had been engaging recruits, and the 
call of August 4 for another 300,000 men, with con- 
scription threatened, showed its effect in a growing re- 
sponse to all appeals. Before the middle of the month 
one company left the county and on August 22, at New 
Albany, were mustered into the Eighty-first Regiment 
as Company G, William O'Neill, captain; Titus Cum- 
mings, first lieutenant; John Arnold Hargis, second 
lieutenant. All these officers, with others non-commis- 
sioned, and a majority of the privates, were at the 
time or afterward residents of Derby and vicinity. 

Just one week later the next company from Perry 
County were mustered in as Company K of the same 
regiment : William H. Cornelius, captain ; William Mc- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 225 

Kinley, Jr., first lieutenant; John Lang Huckeby, sec- 
ond lieutenant. The regiment, under Colonel W. W. 
Caldwell, left the same day for Louisville, en route to 
the front, joining General Buell's brigade early in Oc- 
tober, and acting as a reserve at the Battle of Perry- 
ville, the first of many — and more important engage- 
ments in which it participated. Few if any of Perry 
County's soldiery saw more valiant service than the 
men of the Eighty-first, who were at Stone River, Mur- 
freesboro, Chattanooga, Chickamauga, Rocky Face, 
Resaca, Kingston, Kenesaw, Marietta and the siege of 
Atlanta. 

Even more men, however, were required to fill the 
heavy quota allotted to the county under the two calls 
of July and August, so work of further enlistment was 
actively taken up by Jerome Spillman and Narcisse J. 
Meunier. The latter soon left for Camp Noble with 
thirty men, and toward the close of the month the 
roster was complete. All were mustered in August 28, 
at Madison, as Company G of the Ninety-third Regi- 
ment ; Jerome Spillman, captain ; Campbell Welsh, first 
lieutenant ; Narcisse J. Meunier, second lieutenant. 

Following this there was a prolonged lull in the en- 
listment of men, and the services of Colonel Fournier 
were not needed as draft commissioner. Perry being 
one of only fifteen counties in the state furnishing 
every man demanded, and that, too, as volunteers with 
meagre bounty. 



(15) 



CHAPTER XXV 
PROGRESS OF WAR 

As a part of that plan of defense for the entire In- 
diana-Kentucky border during the winter of 1862-63, 
which distributed the Fifth Indiana Regiment at vari- 
ous points along the river from Lawrenceburg to Mount 
Vernon, a detachment of two cavalry companies, num- 
bering two hundred men, commanded by Captain Banta 
and Captain Soper, landed on December 21 at Cannel- 
ton from the steamer Atlantic, pitching their tents 
temporarily on the parade-ground below town, going 
later into winter quarters on the Leopold Road north- 
west of the corporation line. 

Appreciating the security from possible attack 
which their coming afforded, the generous and hos- 
pitable women of Cannelton arranged a celebration of 
New Year's Day, in which a bountiful home-cooked 
dinner was served at Mozart Hall as the principal fea- 
ture. Representing the hostesses, a few cordial words 
of welcome were gracefully spoken by Miss Nancy 
Vaughan (Mrs. Wright-Abbot) for whom three rous- 
ing cheers were given by the boys in blue, before the 
Rev. William Louis Githens, of St. Luke's Church, 
asked the Divine blessing on the board of plenty. The 
weather was particularly fine, and after the ample 
meal had been discussed, the troops turned out for an 
exhibition drill and dress parade in compliment to their 
fair entertainers. 

Acknowledgment of further and continued courte- 
sies shown the soldiers was made through the public 
press more than once, thanking the ladies of Cannelton 
and vicinity for almost daily visits, baskets of good 
things, fine wines and other delicacies for the sick un- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 227 

der care of Surgeons L. J. Bruner and C. C. Hiatt. The 
discipline maintained in camp was excellent through- 
out, and the orderly conduct of the force reflected high 
credit upon privates as well as oflEicers. 

The same patriotic women continued their relief so- 
ciety, also Mrs. Ebenezer Wilber (Margaret Jackson) 
being president at this time, extending aid to any and 
all destitute families of soldiers absent from Perry 
County in their country's service, so that privation, 
wherever found, was humanely ministered unto. Lib- 
eral contributions were made all over the county, and 
a special donation of over fifty dollars was subscribed 
in small amounts by the employes of the sandstone 
quarries at Hamburg, near Rock Island, through their 
manager, James Napier, through whom it was trans- 
mitted to Mrs. John C. Wade (Jemima Edwards) of 
the charity committee. 

There was little interest otherwise in military mat- 
ters during the winter, save temporary excitement over 
news, often contradictory, of successes or reverses at 
the front, and the occasional visits of soldiers home 
on furlough. The Fifth Cavalry broke camp March 1, 
leaving Cannelton for Louisville on board the steamer 
Big Grey Eagle, one of the best-known mail-packets of 
the time, whose name distinguished her from a smaller 
vessel known as the Star Grey Eagle, having a star 
painted on her wheelhouse, both being side-wheelers 
in the Louisville and Henderson trade. Not long aft- 
erward the Government bought the Big Grey Eagle at 
a purchase price of $50,000, having already taken over 
a sister boat of the same line, the Tarascon, for use in 
southern waters. 

The Tarascon attained no little notoriety through 
several times making the trip between New Orleans 
and Mobile, a somewhat perilous passage not ordi- 
narily attempted by craft of her build, and her sea- 
going quality of durability was given ten years' fur- 
ther endurance after the war, when she re-entered her 
old trade. Besides the historic interest of her military 



228 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

service which made her the favourite packet between 
Louisville and Henderson, a whistle exceptionally mu- 
sical in tone peculiarly identified and endeared her to 
every one along the coast, so that from the youngest 
to the oldest none failed to recognize the Tarascon's 
whistle at any hour of day or night. It had originally 
belonged to a small sidewheel packet of an opposing 
line, and the circumstances attending its change of 
ownership after the sinking of the rival steamer Eu- 
gene were regarded among river men as open to criti- 
cism. Whether or not the title in fee-simple was ever 
clearly defined, possession remained nine points of the 
law, and the whistle was for a short while on the Hettie 
Gilmore before transferred to the Tarascon. 

When the gallant old Tarascon went to the bank for 
dismantling in the summer of 1877, the familiar sweet 
whistle was placed on her successor, the James Guthrie, 
whose maiden trip in the same trade was made on 
Christmas Day of that year. After a dozen years of 
use, the whistle was transferred to a new sternwheel 
boat, the Tell City, and in 1915 was once more placed 
upon a second, though smaller, Tarascon perpetuating 
a name honoured in the story of Ohio River navigation. 

Among the homecoming soldiers, all, whether officer 
or private, received a heartfelt and royal welcome, and 
when their furloughs had expired were warmly bid- 
den God-speed on their return to the field. Some of 
the fallen — Corporal Adam Schmuck, from Pittsburg 
Landing; Sergeant Samuel Wilde, from Murfrees- 
boro; and Captain Joseph Rudd Key, from Perryville 
— had already been brought home amid silence broken 
only by "the muffled drums' sad roll" and laid down to 
their last, long rest — 

"Under the sod and the dew, 
Waiting the judgment day." 

An event, however, wherein the pride of patriotism 
dominated the pathos of pain, took place May 13, 1863, 
at Cannelton, a formal sword presentation, on behalf of 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 229 

the ladies of Perry County, to Adjutant Thomas James 
de la Hunt, of the Twenty-sixth, who had been wounded 
four times in the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, 
December 7, 1862. 

After being shot from his horse. Adjutant de la Hunt 
fought on foot with heroic gallantry, only when too 
weak from loss of blood to stand creeping aside for 
shelter from the evening damp and the chill of death, 
under a haystack whence he watched what he believed 
to be his life's last sunset; in his heart the prayer of 
Daniel Webster, that he might "not see * * * the 
broken and dishououred fragments of a once-glorious 
Union." Two Confederates passing by in retreat took 
his sword, leaving him to die after his sole remark, 
"Gentlemen, you have the advantage of me," and it 
was past midnight when flickering lantern light re- 
vealed him, half-conscious, to those who had come in 
search of their beloved officer's body. Following a 
hundred days in hospital at Springfield, Missouri, he 
was able to return with shattered right arm to Cannel- 
ton, and the admiring women of his adopted county at 
once determined to make up to him the loss of that 
sword sacrificed at such cost upon their country's altar. 

Mozart Hall, already the scene of so many memor- 
able events in Cannelton's social no less than political 
history, was decorated with flags and flowers by the 
ladies, and after an overture from the fine band con- 
ducted by Nicholas Vollman, Samuel K. Connor as 
chairman introduced to the large assembly the eloquent 
Jacob B. Maynard, who fairly surpassed himself in the 
felicitous brilliancy of his tribute to "The Ladies": 

"The Ladies, God bless them ! When the day's dark and 
gloomy 

Tlieir fortitude nerves and emboldens the brave ; 
They linger like angels where Death holds his revels. 

To comfort the dying on the verge of the grave. 



230 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

"The Ladies, God bless them ! They honour the worthy, 
Their hearts throb responsive to the patriot's story ; 

And their hands and their hearts in unison labour 
To weave for the heroes fresh chaplets of glory." 

"We have heard much said of woman's rights, her 
right to vote, her right to hold office ; these and kindred 
rights have elicited warm discussions, but woman's 
right to be an angel has never been disputed. In the 
shining sphere of charity and tenderness she has no 
rival and must continue to sway her charmed sceptre 
so long as the world is capable of appreciating the no- 
blest sacrifices, the tenderest sympathy and the purest 
benevolence that the human heart is capable of ex- 
hibiting. 

"In the march of events, it may not be woman's pre- 
rogative to occupy the central position upon the canvas 
where History is painting its heroes, but without the 
delicate shading of her tenderness, the brilliancy of 
her genius, the sublimity of her fortitude, the devotion 
of her love, and the mellowing influence of her saintly 
presence, history would be shorn of its mightiest hold 
upon the minds of men. And at no time in the world's 
history has woman's influence been more prominently 
displayed than during the struggle through which our 
country is now passing. The patriotism of the mothers, 
wives and sisters of America in giving their sons, hus- 
bands and brothers, without a murmur, is a theme for 
the most gifted intellect, the most gorgeous fancy, the 
most fervid imagination, and to do it justice would ex- 
haust the English language to its last letter. They 
liave not only given these, but when the lightning has 
flashed the tidings of carnage and of death, they have 
stood ready by hundreds and thousands to make every 
sacrifice and endure every privation to alleviate the 
suffering, to comfort and console the dying patriot 
soldier. 

"In this bright array the women of Indiana have 
been as conspicuous for deeds of sympathy and love as 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 231 

the sons of Indiana have been for distinguished hero- 
ism. Indiana! The name of our gallant State sends 
a thrill of patriotic pride through every loyal heart in 
the land. Indiana ! No star in the beaming constella- 
tion is more luminous. Indiana! Every footprint 
made by her noble army is a waymark on the road to 
victory. And the ladies of Indiana are treasuring up 
these noble deeds of her heroes, and will, as opportun- 
ity offers, make appropriate acknowledgment and pay a 
fitting tribute. 

"It has been said that Republics are ungrateful, per- 
mitting benefactors of the State to linger in forgetful- 
ness and sink into oblivion. I shall not discuss that 
point now, but one thing I am sure of, the Ladies of 
Cannelton and of Perry County are neither ungrateful 
nor forgetful. They remember and appreciate the 
bravery of those who entered the army from Perry 
County. Their prayers follow them to the battle-field. 
That they are honoured when they return, this bright 
array tonight would satisfy all, but that it may now be 
more fully demonstrated, allow me to introduce the 
Reverend Mr. Githens." 

Some further music preceded the remarks made by 
the Rev. William Louis Githens, of St. Luke's Church, 
in delivering to Adjutant de la Hunt the elaborately 
wrought sword, with jeweled hilt, upon its scabbard a 
silver shield bearing the inscription : 

Presented to 
Adj. Thos. J. de la Hunt 

26th Reg. Ind. Vols. 

Army of the Frontier 

By Ladies of Perry County, 

Indiana 

One side of the blade showed the engraved date of the 
battle, "December 7, 1862"; the reverse, its scene, 
"Prairie Grove, Arkansas." The same affectionate 
spirit which characterized the reverend speaker's pul- 



232 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

pit utterances displayed itself in a touching reference 
to the Adjutant's wounded right arm, and "the hand, 
now so helpless, which often seized the pen and wrote 
for our entertainment here at home such interesting 
descriptive letters, scenes of the battle-field and camp, 
of marches and soldiers' duties." "May you live," he 
said in conclusion, "to see the banner under which you 
fought, unfurled to the breeze, floating over our com- 
mon country — united, happy, prosperous, peaceful — 
'the land of the free and the home of the brave.' " 

Adjutant de la Hunt's modest words in accepting the 
token, sought to share its honour with all his gallant 
comrades of the Twenty-sixth, many of whom slept in 
glorious but nameless graves all the way from the 
banks of the turbulent Missouri to the ensanguined 
slopes of Prairie Grove ; and expressed the difficulty of 
separating an individual's personal courage from that 
caught through the grandeur of a supreme moment, or 
the sublime enthusiasm of companionship. 

"But whether in the field or by the fireside, this gift 
I shall ever hold as my dearest treasure, "spoke the 
Adjutant, "bequeathing it when I die, as my richest in- 
heritance, to my truest, warmest patriot friend, with 
the solemn injunction that in the hour of his country's 
need this sword must leap from its scabbard, to flash 
in the sunshine and strike — for the unity, the glory and 
the honour of the United States of America." At the 
glowing climax of these words the band struck up "The 
Star Spangled Banner," amid great applause, and an 
hour of social conversation, diversified by popular 
songs, brought to its close an evening like no other wit- 
nessed in Cannelton. 

Adjutant (later Major) de la Hunt was one of those 
Indiana Democrats who were true as steel to the na- 
tional government, standing side by side with Repub- 
licans in the front of battle wherever the fight was 
deadliest, vying with each other in valourous charge 
of every forlorn hope. Looking backward, it can to- 
day be seen that patriotism was of the people, irre- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 233 

spective of party lines; and since the country rested 
then, as now, upon the people, not upon any party, so 
by the people was it saved in its hour of greatest peril. 

"Indiana knows no North no South, nothing but the 
Union" — that matchless sentiment chiseled into the 
limestone block which was her state contribution to 
the Washington Monument, and marvellously forecast- 
ing the course of development which has kept for a 
generation the national centre of population within 
her borders, was never more true than during the War 
Between the States, although local politics had been 
urged to the bitterest extreme before Fort Sumter fell, 
and in the senseless heat of partisan argument many 
things were said which could be, and which were, con- 
strued to mean much more than was intended. 

Thus, the famous Sixth Resolution, adopted at Can- 
nelton on New Year's Day, 1861, led to the resignation, 
by request, of Major John James Key, a lofty patriot, 
commissioned by President Lincoln but forced out un- 
der pressure, because — forsooth — he had been present 
at the convention and had moved that a committee (of 
which he was never a member) be appointed to frame 
resolutions of whose tenor he, like everyone else, was 
necessarily in complete ignorance until they were of- 
fered by such committee before the meeting for con- 
sideration. 

Whatever the actual facts, there was sure to be un- 
limited exaggeration of their extent and nature, for in 
a political campaign is invariably a season of misrepre- 
sentation ; so, with excitement at its height, stump 
speakers wrangling in every county, acrimonious de- 
bates raging in the national Congress and state Legis- 
latures, the lust for office spurring on candidates to use 
any means to secure votes, there is no cause for sur- 
prise in a widespread belief that popular support of the 
war was a proposition of extreme doubt in Indiana es- 
pecially in the Southern counties. It has been practi- 
cally settled that an organization existed, first known 
as "Knights of the Golden Circle" and afterwards as 



234 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

"Sons of Liberty," whose object was some sort of oppo- 
sition toward prosecuting the war for the preservation 
of the Union, and Perry County had more than one 
citizen at whose door was laid the charge of member- 
ship in such a society. 

The divided sentiment among her own people had 
made Kentucky, during the earlier period of the strug- 
gle a scene of fierce and bloody local strife, so that she 
could not be reckoned upon by either of the great con- 
tending parties. With this fight to the death going on 
just across the Ohio, with the battle front between the 
Union and the Confederacy extending from Virginia 
to Missouri, with a sense of uncertainty harassing 
every one, with political schemers using their breath 
to fan the spark of discontent over the conscription into 
an open flame of rebellion, the strain of highest ten- 
sion was undeniably reached at this period, yet the "sil- 
ver cord" was not "loosed" and the "golden bowl" was 
not "broken." 

"Copperhead" and "Butternut" were names first ap- 
plied to persons regarded as directly or indirectly fa- 
vourable to the South's cause, but later stood for all 
who opposed the Republican administration upon any 
ground. With all the personal faults attributed to In- 
diana's great "War Governor," Oliver Perry Morton 
was a patriot true, an executive of inflexible firmness, 
and made himself magically the master of circum- 
stances. Realizing the necessity for exciting the war 
spirit to its highest pitch, and thinking he saw at the 
same time an opportunity for crushing the Democratic 
party, he did not hesitate to accuse his political oppo- 
nents of treason outright, so that by his standard of 
measurement whoever differed from him in political 
understanding was a Butternut, a Copperhead, a trai- 
tor to the country. 

This Draconian attitude was merely assumed in the 
vital exigency which the situation then presented. Gov- 
ernor Morton's earliest message, April 25, 1861, voiced 
the noblest of sentiment toward Kentucky as a sister 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 235 

state, appealing to her "by the ties of common kindred 
and history, and by community of interests." Nor can 
it be denied, notwithstanding the violence of individual 
antagonism and the hostile demonstrations coming 
from both sides, that the relations of the best element 
in the two states existed upon a basis of mutual esteem. 
No other two of the border States had been bound 
together by links of such peculiar intimacy for 
more than two generations. With fraternal devotion, 
born as joint-heirs of a Virginian heritage, Kentucki- 
ans had poured across the Ohio into Indiana forests to 
protect her scattered trading-posts and punish the 
devastating Indians tormenting her pioneers, through 
all the years from Fort Sackville to Tippecanoe. And 
since 

"That one who breaks the way with tears 
Many shall follow with a song," 

so, with the passing years, business connections became 
closer, constant trade more valuable, and intermar- 
riages strengthened all with happier ties of family 
kinship. 

Upon the invitation of Governor Joseph A. Wright, 
Governor Thomas L. Crittenden, of Kentucky, became 
Indiana's guest at Indianapolis in 1854 for the inter- 
change of hospitality of the purest friendly character, 
crowning with official recognition the entente cordiale 
of the two commonwealths. A striking historic event, 
this visit was shortly followed by a return, in which 
Kentucky generosity and liberality gracefully com- 
pleted what the gratitude and respect of Indiana had 
so happily begun. 

So, in every conflict and military movement of the 
War Between the States throughout Kentucky, Indiana 
troops were foremost. Their patriotic blood was cheer- 
fully shed among the first to stain anew the soil of the 
erst "Dark and Bloody Ground" which had sent so 
many gallant defenders to protect the infancy of the 
Hoosier State. And for more than a year Indiana in 



236 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

no small degree maintained toward her elder sister 
state that guardianship which had so long and affec- 
tionately cherished her own feeble childhood. Whether 
or not the indebtedness was fully discharged, nothing 
was omitted that traditional regard and earnest sense 
of duty could perform in appreciative acknowledgment 
of an admitted obligation. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

HINES' INVASION — MORGAN'S RAID 

Forgetting the proverbial truth "still waters run 
deep," many Southerners regarded the superficial froth 
on the waves of political campaigning in Indiana as in- 
dicating a strong undercurrent of popular sentiment, 
sufficiently powerful if brought to the surface to swamp 
the Union ship of state and give hundreds of eager 
Indianians an opportunity to cast in their fortunes with 
the Confederacy. An attempt to test the issue, there- 
fore, was planned by John Morgan, the dashing young 
cavalry officer attached to General Braxton Bragg's 
army near Chattanooga, where he had already won a 
name for singular originality in leading his small com- 
mand upon expeditions of the most fearless daring. 

Early summer of 1863 found mighty armies facing 
each other near the Tennessee and Georgia state line, 
fairly under the shadow of Lookout Mountain, in daily 
expectation of some decisive battle. With the inex- 
haustible resources of the North behind the Union 
army, Bragg felt that General Rosecrans could fall 
upon him with overwhelming force unless some bold 
stroke in the rear could prevent the sending of rein- 
forcements. Burnside, to the east, was near enough to 
harass Buckner (restored by exchange to his old com- 
mand), and possessed a strong resource in General Ju- 
dah's division of 5,000 excellent cavalry. The Confed- 
erate problem was how to avert the imminent danger 
of a blow from these horsemen upon Bragg's flank, so, 
with the double object of preventing this and at the 
same time keeping Judah from joining Rosecrans, Mor- 
gan advised a raid across the Ohio into Indiana. Plaus- 



238 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

ibly he argued, from personal experience in Kentucky, 
that a charge into that state alone would be disas- 
trously crushed out so quickly that its effects would not 
justify the hazardous risk of such an adventure; 
though he contended that a grand foray through In- 
diana would keep a large force of Northern troops for 
weeks upon his track. 

General Bragg — always highly conservative — could 
not be brought to visualize the advantages of possible 
success to anything like the degree for which Morgan 
hoped. Knowing the perils of the proposed movement, 
fearing the effect upon his own remaining army which 
the isolation, and perhaps loss, of so valuable a cavalry 
force might have, Bragg would only consent that the 
dash should be made through Kentucky, expressly 
stipulating in his order that it should not extend beyond 
the Ohio. According, therefore, to the "History of 
Morgan's Raid," by General Basil W. Duke, the raid 
upon Indiana soil was made in positive disobedience of 
orders; and since, as his brother-in-law, confidential 
adviser and lieutenant, Duke had full access to Mor- 
gan's plans, the statement (quoted from his sprightly 
narrative, whose ability is admitted) leaves no room 
for doubt. 

Its importance, after all, lies in its showing the dis- 
position of Morgan to have his own way and to con- 
duct his campaigns in a manner of peculiar indepen- 
dence, this being one secret of his fame and a magnet 
attracting to his standard so many of the adventurous 
Kentuckians who principally composed his command. 
With the recklessness born of desperation he deter- 
mined to over-ride the orders of his superior, and con- 
quer, if possible, the dangers encompassing the Con- 
federate army in the Middle South by a sudden coup 
d'etat which would carry consternation and dismay 
into hitherto peaceful Indiana. Curiously enough, it 
was a parallel instance of disobedience or insubordina- 
tion on the part of another, one of his own captains, 
which largely discounted the anticipated surprise of 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 239 

Morgan's raid, when it actually occurred, by placing 
the Indianians to some extent upon their guard. 

During the month of May, 1863, Captain Thomas H. 
Hines, with a company of the Ninth Kentucky (Con- 
federate) Cavalry, was detached from Morgan's divi- 
sion of Bragg's brigade in Tennessee, and sent to Ken- 
tucky to take charge of a camp for recruiting disabled 
horses, with further permission "to operate against the 
enemy north of the Cumberland River." This was not 
a bad piece of advance strategy on Morgan's part, the 
collection of extra mounts ahead of his arrival, had 
Hines only been content with his own part as head 
nurse to the convalescent steeds. 

Restless and daring, however, he partook too much 
of Morgan's own temperament to remain quiet long, 
so interpreted in its widest possible scope his authority 
"north of the Cumberland," pushing across Kentucky 
with his relative handful of men until, on June 17, their 
eyes looked upon the Indiana hills of Perry County, and 
they watered their weary horses in the Ohio River be- 
tween Rome and Derby, some eighteen miles east of 
Cannelton, at a point called Roberts' Landing. 

By means of wood flats obtained through the assist- 
ance of Breckinridge County sympathizers, Hines' 
force of sixty-two men were ferried across as the first 
invaders of Perry County, thinking it would be huge 
sport to gallop around for awhile upon Northern soil 
and, incidentally, pick up as many fresh horses as 
might conveniently be found. Making arrangements 
with his ferrymen to meet him in about three days at 
a point agreed upon, Hines set forward into the in- 
terior, headed in the general direction of Paoli, Orange 
County, judiciously protecting his flanks as far as the 
limited extent of his force would allow by scouts 
thrown out. 

With impudent assurance he represented himself and 
his gang as belonging to the Union army in the Dis- 
trict of Kentucky, and claimed to be acting under or- 
ders from General Boyle, in search of deserters. Un- 



240 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

der this assumed character he found at first but little 
difficulty in procuring a number of excellent horses, 
leaving in their stead his own jaded, broken-down ani- 
mals, coolly giving vouchers in due form upon the 
Federal Quartermaster at Indianapolis for the differ- 
ence in value, which he accommodatingly fixed at a lib- 
eral and satisfactory figure. The arrogant disguise, 
however, was soon penetrated. Before his arrival on 
the 19th at Valeene, Orange County, the whole secret 
of his mission had become known, and the alarm, 
amazingly exaggerated as to the strength of his force 
and the damage wrought, was spreading with miracu- 
lous rapidity through Perry, Crawford, Orange, Wash- 
ington, Harrison and contiguous counties. 

Word reached Cannelton that four or five hundred 
guerillas had invaded the county and were plundering 
all through the upper valley of Deer Creek, where they 
were said to have burned the Hinton Meeting-House. 
This report was altogether a hoax, but the alertness 
of the Fifth Regiment of the Legion was demonstrated 
in their speedy pursuit of Hines. Colonel Charles 
Fournier was then in command (succeeding Colonel 
Charles H. Mason, who had resigned in January, 1862, 
to accept an appointment as judge of the Common 
Pleas Court), and took active measures to defend the 
line of the river in the rear of the guerillas. Calling 
out as many mounted men as possible, he set forth 
from Cannelton toward Flint Island Bar above Derby, 
to protect the government ram Monarch, there aground 
and lying entirely exposed, as her destruction was first 
believed to be the object of Hines' raid. 

Reaching the sandbar at ten o'clock at night, to learn 
that Hines had gone on northward and that there was 
scant probability of interference with the Monarch, 
Colonel Fournier, as a precautionary measure, placed 
part of his force in a position to give certain defense 
to the ram in case of attack, despatching the remain- 
der, with the Second Battalion under Captain Jesse C. 
Esarey, as a troop sufficient to intercept the enemy at 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 241 

Blue River Island, where, it was reported, he would 
attempt to recross the river. By thus moving in be- 
tween Hines and his expected outlet, Colonel Fournier 
gave complete checkmate to the marauders, since a 
troop of sixty armed minute-men from Paoli under 
Major Robert E. Clendennin, with recruits from Va- 
leene and neighbouring settlements, besides Major Ho- 
ratio Woodbury's mounted Leavenworth battalion, 
were hot upon the guerilla trail, pressing with all speed 
toward the river. 

The combined manoeuvre worked out most effec- 
tively. Compelled to fly for safety nearly a day sooner 
than he had counted on, Hines reached his first ren- 
dezvous on the Ohio at 2 p. m., June 19, only to find no 
ferry facilities available; Esarey's command in front, 
Woodbury's and Clendennin's in the rear offering suffi- 
cient strength to rout him completely; and no relief 
from boats to be thought of under the circumstances. 
On the horns of a dilemma, and scheming to avoid open 
conflict with the militia and citizens, Hines turned to 
the guide he had conscripted, for aid in finding an- 
other crossing place. 

Nothing better could have suited Bryant Breeden the 
guide, a loyal Union man unwillingly impressed into 
the enemy's service. Through Findlay McNaughton, 
of the First Indiana Cavalry, whom Hines had cap- 
tured and was holding in custody, a little son of Bry- 
ant's, following his father to see the fun, was sent back 
to Leavenworth with information of the plan to cross 
the river farther up, so the citizens could mount patrol 
guard with the steamer Izetta and aid the land forces 
in preventing the guerillas' escape. Determined to 
make the most of his position, Breeden caused a bewil- 
dering delay in finding what he reported as a practical 
ford, and the Izetta, fully armed, was under way up- 
stream by the time Hines and his men had been lured 
three miles above to Blue River Island, where the In- 
diana channel is shallow and easily forded in the low 
stage of water there was at the time, but with a deep 

(IG) 



242 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

channel and swift current between the island and 
the Kentucky shore. 

Major Clendennin and Captain Esarey with their 
troops presently came upon the scene while discussion 
was going on, so without further parley the guerillas, 
thinking their only safety lay in crossing, plunged with 
their booty into the ford before them, and amid yells 
of derision soon reached the island. But their triumph 
was brief. While huddled together, viewing in dismay 
the rather unfavourable prospect beyond, Major Clen- 
dennin opened fire upon them. Hines discharged a 
few ineffectual random return shots, and as a last re- 
sort attempted to swim to the southern bank, only him- 
self and two privates thus making a successful escape. 
At the psychological moment the Izetta arrived in the 
channel, and with a piece of artillery and small arms 
forced the enemy back to Indiana to surrender. Three 
men were killed, two drowned and three wounded, these 
last being included in the fifty men, one lieutenant and 
one captain who gave themselves up as prisoners of 
war and were sent to Louisville under orders from Gen- 
eral Boyle. 

Single-handed and alone, a few weeks later in Meade 
County, Kentucky, Captain Hines rejoined General 
Morgan, to whom he clung with a devotion which that 
dazzling chieftain seemed gifted to inspire, until the 
final collapse of the cause at issue, and which on the 
part of Hines was deepened by remorse over his own 
costly disobedience. 

Just a week prior to Hines' invasion of Perry 
County, or June 11, 1863, John Morgan sallied forth 
from Alexandria, Tennessee, heading the hazardous 
expedition which was destined to end in the death or 
capture of nearly every man among the twenty-four 
hundred comprising its two divisions. Of the several 
hard skirmishes met with on the journey toward In- 
diana, that at the crossing of Green River is note- 
worthy as occurring on July 4, a day which General 
Morgan found no more auspicious than did General 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 243 

Lee at Gettysburg or General Pemberton at Vicksburg, 
a singular fatality seeming to attend the Southern arms 
on Independence Day. 

With the wide distance separating Pennsylvania 
from Mississippi, and the middle position of Kentucky, 
a curious picture of the distracted condition of our 
country is the fact that Morgan was completely ignor- 
ant of these results four whole days later, July 8, when 
from the heights of picturesque Brandenburg his pierc- 
ing gaze swept the fertile lowlands of Harrison County, 
vast fields of wheat, cribs of yellow com, pens of 
squeaking pigs, grazing herds of fat milch-cattle or 
nibbling sheep, poultry-yards noisy with cackling 
chickens, everything that famished horses or equally 
hungry riders could crave, at hand for them, whither- 
soever the roads led. 

Morgan's very name had become a note of uneasiness 
ringing in the ears of his enemies, and grave was the 
alarm felt in Perry County when news of his immedi- 
ate approach from the South was received. Instant 
preparations for defense were begun. Valuables were 
hastily concealed and plans laid for sending women and 
children to remote places of security, but the terrible 
nervous tension was relaxed when the arrival of the 
mail packet, Lady Pike, brought tidings that the guer- 
illas had crossed at Brandenburg, on board the John T. 
McCombs, which an advance squad under Captain Tay- 
lor and Captain Meriwether of the Tenth Kentucky 
(Confederate) had seized at two o'clock in the after- 
noon of July 7. 

Fortune apparently smiled upon the invaders, the 
larger steamer Alice Dean being also captured only a 
few hours later, so that two vessels were available for 
ferriage as fast as the remaining troops arrived from 
Salt River. Two regiments had been transported when 
a gun-boat steamed down the river, beginning a fire 
which for a time threatened to cut in twain the guer- 
illa force, but the battery of Parrott guns adroitly 
planted on the bluff, near "Park Place," the home of 



244 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Judge John W. Lewis, soon silenced interference, and 
ere long the entire command was in motion upon In- 
diana soil, outside of and away from Perry County, so 
that the further story of Morgan's Raid passes be- 
yond this chronicle. 

It should only be added that as Morgan swept north- 
ward from the river with pyrotechnic velocity he did 
not dream that the army of veterans with which Lee 
had invaded Pennsylvania — the finest flower of South- 
em manhood, a hundred thousand strong — was already 
cut to pieces, nearly one-third its number killed, 
wounded or captured, and its defeated yet unconquered 
remnant in full retreat across the Potomac. Strange 
to him and his followers, then, seemed the flags and 
bunting displayed on houses left open without an in- 
mate to protect their contents against pillage. In de- 
serted streets were half -cooled ashes of bonfires giving 
evidence of rejoicing over Union victories. Through a 
telegraph operator named Ellsworth the guerillas even- 
tually learned that the Mississippi River at last lay 
open to Federal gunboats for its full length, and that 
the supposedly invincible Army of Virginia had been 
driven back. Perhaps the next news might be that 
Rosecrans had crushed Bragg and was pouring 
through the Georgia hills to Atlanta. 

Where, then, were the thousands of Butternuts and 
Copperheads who had been standing ready to join the 
Confederate army? Instead of helpers or comrades the 
amazed raiders found everywhere empty houses, and 
bodies of armed men who shot at them to kill. "In a 
word," as Maurice Thompson, himself of Southern line- 
age and Confederate affiliation, has written, "Indiana 
was loyal. Her men might wrangle and squabble, 
might call one another hard names in the heat of local 
politics, yet when it came to choosing between Union 
and Secession, all stood together for the old Flag and 
the Constitution." 



CHAPTER XXVII 

BOMBARDMENT OF HAWESVILLE 

"Boom ! Boom !" roared the thunder of artillery 
across the placid Ohio from Cannelton to Hawesville 
one sultry morning in July, 1864. Nor was it a peace- 
ful salute, but a discharge of actual warfare from the 
Federal gunboat Springfield (No. 22 of the Ohio and 
Mississippi fleet) , then lying at anchor before Cannel- 
ton for the town's protection, and the solitary instance 
when naval cannon were fired in defense of Indiana 
soil. 

As the war progressed, drawing more and more of 
Perry County's able-bodied men into the army, on the 
opposite side of the river a smaller proportion from 
Hancock County had regularly enlisted, either for the 
Union or the Confederacy, so that Hawesville, like 
many other localities in Kentucky, was left practically 
at the mercy of the many irregular squads of unat- 
tached cavalry, whose piratical incursions were the 
least creditable feature of the conflict. The best and 
most responsible citizens on either side, whatever their 
affiliations, were sincerely opposed to border hostilities, 
wishing as far as possible to maintain peaceable rela- 
tions with their lifelong neighbours, leaving the mo- 
mentous questions at stake to be settled vi et armis 
on distant battlefields by the recognized leaders of 
both parties. 

Troops of the Perry County Legion had more than 
once gone to the defense of Breckinridge and Han- 
cock Counties against plundering marauders, whose 
depredations were a menace to every quiet home. The 
knowledge of this intensified the antagonism of the 
guerillas, who several times slipped into and out of 



246 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Hawesville, and their bitterest animosity was directed 
toward Cannelton, as the county seat and centre of 
Perry County troops, notwithstanding her chief indus- 
trial plants represented the investment of New Orleans 
and Louisville capital. 

The favourite threat among the fire-eating South- 
rons was, "We'll come across and burn your cotton mill 
for you," a taunt repeated with increasing vehemence 
after John Morgan's spectacular dash across Harrison 
County in the preceding year. His first defeat, and the 
imprisonment in Ohio from which he escaped, exer- 
cised no restraint upon the scouting bands assembled 
from time to time in Kentucky, and since the geograph- 
ical position of Cannelton exposed the town with pecu- 
liar strategic weakness as a possible point of attack, 
the government detached from the lower flotilla Cap- 
tain Edmond Morgan's vessel, the Springfield, order- 
ing him to guard the port of Cannelton during the sum- 
mer of 1864. 

This duty was almost a furlough for Captain Mor- 
gan, compared with his earlier experiences. Born in 
an aristocratic English family, his father being Cap- 
tain Edmond Morgan, Sr., of the Buckinghamshire 
Guards, he had been at the age of thirteen a commis- 
sioned midshipman in the Royal Navy, participating 
creditably in the brief but bloody Crimean War. At 
its close he came, a soldier of fortune, to America 
where a near relative, Lord Lyon, was then at Wash- 
ington as Queen Victoria's Envoy Extraordinary and 
Minister Plenipotentiary. Through Lord Lyon's friend- 
ship with Admiral Porter young Morgan was given a 
special position as squadron instructor, to teach sword 
practice and the sighting and firing of heavy ordnance. 

His sympathies being with the North, Morgan soon 
accepted a commission in the United States Navy and 
entered a stirring period of his life. He became a 
blockade runner, commanding a flotilla of twelve 
steamboats that crept down the Mississippi one stormy 
night and spiked the batteries of Island Number Ten, 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 247 

allowing the bottled-up Federal fleet to steam toward 
Vicksburg. Following this, he headed an expedition up 
the Cumberland River to seize the southern iron foun- 
dries, an exploit of constant fighting and prodigious 
labour, such as the burning of twelve bridges. For 
both these feats he received high tribute from the War 
Department and special recognition from Congress. 

Contrasted with such thrilling service the Cannelton 
appointment seemed mere pastime. Very gay was the 
social life of the little town during that long summer, 
its patriotic families vying with each other in the hos- 
pitable attentions they were pleased to extend to the 
gallant officers and marines who were their protectors, 
nor were these lacking in return courtesies, even on 
board their somewhat austere vessel. The Springfield 
was a sternwheel boat approximating in size the pres- 
ent Louisville and Evansville packets, but completely 
sheathed with iron plates, pierced only by apertures 
for her guns. Her pilot-house was surmounted by a 
handsome pair of stag antlers, taken from a deer shot 
in southwestern Missouri, not far from New Madrid 
before the capture of Island Number Ten, and these 
are perhaps the only material souvenir of the Spring- 
field yet in existence. 

Well-nigh forgotten had been the strife of war until 
one Monday morning, July 25, to be exact, was made 
memorable by the bombardment of Hawesville, and 
about ten o'clock some rapid firing called a curious 
crowd to the river bank for a sight wholly new and ever 
since without a parallel. There was a deep bass 
hum-m-m, a sharp whiz-z-z, a beautifully perfect 
wreath of smoke issuing from the cannon's mouth ; then 
in the distance, a few feet from the earth, a pure white 
cloud started out of the clear air, and five seconds later 
returned the hollow, reverberating boom-m-m. 

Nor was sound the only emotion, for the scene was 
equally exciting. A shell would burst over some Ken- 
tucky home, driving out half a dozen terror-stricken 
inmates ; a strong current of women and children was 



248 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

setting toward the lower part of town, a goodly num- 
ber hastening within the thick stone walls of the Ro- 
man Catholic Church for protection, while many ne- 
groes, as they were reminded of safe retreat in the 
Trabue coal mines, fled thither and looked not behind, 
believing that the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah had 
befallen their village. 

While frightened Hawesville thus sought the shel- 
ter of distance, rock walls and caves in the earth, open- 
mouthed Cannelton stood agog to witness the exhibi- 
tion. Shelling a town was, indeed, a rare show for 
Indiana citizens. There were the finest facilities for 
observation, abundant ammunition, and not a whit of 
danger. About twenty shells were discharged and all 
was over. A thousand stories were instantly in circu- 
lation, impossible to record and foolish to deny. 

The substance of the affair was that Captain Morgan 
had received information of guerillas entering Hawes- 
ville, and with great caution sent into the town a few 
shells which did no damage to person and none of con- 
sequence to property. He had no opportunity for 
warning the residents to leave, but by personal super- 
intendence of every piece pointed and every fuse fired, 
saw that no danger should be incurred by inoffensive 
citizens of the place. His generous offer, immediately 
made public, to remunerate from his private purse 
any one whatever, to the full extent of any loss they 
might have sustained, was an honourable pledge to the 
careful discharge of his official duty as protector of the 
peace and dignity of both towns. 

Among the attractive young girls of Cannelton were 
three often grouped together as "belles" in name and 
fact. Miss Isabelle Beacon, Miss Isabelle Kirkpatrick 
and Miss Isabelle Huckeby, all of whom eventually 
wedded army men. Most youthful of the three and the 
youngest child, as well, of Joshua B. Huckeby, was 
Miss Huckeby, who was married in after years to 
Major Thomas James de la Hunt, of General Hovey's 
staff. Her two brothers were in the Federal army 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 249 

(Captain John Lang Huckeby, of the Eighty-first In- 
diana, and William Lamb Huckeby, engineer on the 
gunboat Peytona). Their parents took particular 
pains in entertaining Captain Morgan at their home 
"Virginia Place," with its square-pillared verandah 
after an Old Dominion model, and no other guests were 
more warmly welcomed than Miss Beacon and Miss 
Kirkpatrick. 

With the approach of autumn the wane of the Con- 
federacy had distinctly set in, so that fear of guerilla 
annoyance was over. The Springfield was ordered to 
join her fleet at New Orleans, steaming away down 
the river, to be seen at Cannelton no more. The ant- 
lers were Captain Morgan's parting gift to his little 
friend. Miss Huckeby, but a more tender trophy, his 
heart, he left behind with Miss Beacon. Before the 
summer roses bloomed again in Cannelton gardens 
Richmond had fallen, Lee had surrendered at Appo- 
mattox, Lincoln had been assassinated, and when Cap- 
tain Morgan next came, in piping times of peace, he 
wore uniform no longer but was in citizen's garb to 
claim his promised bride. 

Of the gay wedding party from both Indiana and 
Kentucky assembled in the old Beacon homestead, only 
one remains half a century later on the old stamping 
ground. Colonel Franklin Lander, of Hawesville, per- 
haps the one man of his vicinity who at all times hap- 
pily bridged any social gulf between North and South, 
counting by the score his warm personal friends in the 
armies of both the Union and the Confederacy. Es- 
teemed as "Cousin Frank" by young and old alike, he 
stands an admirable example of the polished gentle- 
man of the ancien regime. In the old-fashioned, low- 
ceilinged, long drawing-room of "Virginia Place" the 
antlers occupy the post of honour above a bay-window 
looking — today, as it did fifty years earlier — toward 
the hills of Kentucky, across the Beautiful River, 
"whence the fleets of iron have fled." 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

CLOSE OF WAR. 

The presidential campaign of 1864 was decidedly 
spirited all over Indiana, and into Perry County were 
sent many leading men of both political parties, 
speeches being delivered by Thomas A. Hendricks and 
William H. English among others. Owing to the ab- 
sence of so many voters with the army the number of 
ballots cast was greater by only fifteen than that of 
four years previously, although there had been some 
increase in the actual population of both Cannelton 
and Tell City. The votes polled gave as a result : Lin- 
coln and Johnson, 1,112; McClellan and Pendleton, 
1,042; showing that popular sentiment was still with 
the administration, despite a certain degree of bitter- 
ness engendered by the conscription and skilfully nur- 
tured for partisan ends. 

Three full companies — 293 men — were the quota re- 
quired from the county by the staggering draft of July 
18, 1864, and conscription was seen to be inevitable, 
though strenuous efforts were made, under the leader- 
ship of Judge Charles H. Mason, toward raising a 
bounty fund in Troy Township, where 176 volunteers 
were called for. While the Springfield was stationed 
at Cannelton some seventeen men from the vicinity en- 
listed for gunboat service ; and up to the autumn forty- 
five recruits had been sent to the Twenty-sixth Regi- 
ment ; ten or twelve to the Thirty-fifth ; about fifteen to 
the Forty-ninth ; a dozen to the Fifty-third, and sundry 
small squads to other commands. But the draft could 
not be escaped, and late in September 185 men were 
conscripted, thus distributed among the townships: 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 251 

Troy, 123; Oil, 21; Clark, 19; Anderson, 11; Tobin, 11; 
Leopold and Union having furnished their proportion. 

About this time it became evident and was later ac- 
knowledged that through failure in making proper re- 
ports to headquarters of all her recruits under the last 
few calls. Perry County had not received her full credit 
for men in service, so the omissions were corrected, and 
some few others similarly discovered were beneficially 
rectified. The men conscripted went to New Albany 
during October and were assigned to various regiments. 
The final call of the war for troops, December 19, 1864, 
met with but meagre response, another draft being 
foreseen, though the liberal bounty offered — $640 — 
had its effect in sending some men to the old regiments, 
as it was felt that Sherman's March to the Sea was 
the beginning of the end. 

About thirty-five men enlisted in Company I, of the 
One Hundred and Forty-fourth Regiment, mustered in 
squads during February, 1865, William H. Kyler be- 
coming second lieutenant when regimental organization 
was effected March 6, at Indianapolis. By the draft of 
this same month at Jeffersonville, 44 men were con- 
scripted from Troy Township, 19 from Clark, 17 from 
Oil, 8 from Leopold, the remaining townships having 
fully cleared themselves. But few of these entered 
actual service, owing to the speedy close of the war, 
but they were accredited to Perry County, placing her 
upon the honour roll of fifteen among Indiana's ninety- 
two counties which filled every call, besides her excel- 
lent record of no less than nineteen Home Guard com- 
panies in the Indiana Legion, of which they formed 
the Fifth Regiment. 

Colonel Charles Fournier had maintained his entire 
command in camp along the river between Rono (Mag- 
net) and Troy, during the autumn months of 1864, on 
constant guard and patrol duty, a precaution rendered 
necessary by the appearance on the Kentucky border of 
guerilla forces with the presumable purpose of crossing 
the river to aid malcontents in resisting the draft, a 



252 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

plan of invasion which their own safety required them 
to abandon. A Confederate force under Major Walker 
Taylor took possession of Hawesville in December, noti- 
fying the Union commander that if left in undisturbed 
occupancy of that town they would refrain from molest- 
ing Cannelton of its citizens. Colonel Fournier met 
Major Taylor on board the ferry-boat Major Prescott 
in mid-river to discuss the proposition, but no terms 
were agreed upon and the interview ended all com- 
munication. 

On December 23 a troop of marauders headed by 
William Davidson boarded with their horses the Louis- 
ville and Henderson packet Morning Star at the Lewis- 
port landing, twelve miles below Cannelton, shooting 
four Union soldiers, drowning the negro steward, rob- 
bing the passengers of their money and valuables, after 
which the captain was compelled to take the guerillas to 
Hawesville, omitting all intermediate landings. Samuel 
K. Groves and wife (Eliza Huston Huckeby) of Rome, 
had ninety-five dollars taken from them, while another 
passenger, Paul Beisinger, suffered the loss of six hun- 
dred and ninety-five dollars, Davidson insolently writ- 
ing out a receipt which he flung in the captains' face: 
"Received of steamer Morning Star five hundred dol- 
lars." 

Directly upon learning of this outrage. Colonel Four- 
iner trained his against the Kentucky shore and called 
out all the companies at his command. A sufficient 
force could not be rallied during the night to cross the 
river with any prospect of success against the very 
considerable guerilla band just then collected there, but 
the enemy was effectually routed at an early hour the 
next morning by some few well-aimed shots thrown 
through the streets of Hawesville from the ten-pound 
Dahlgren gun which General Love had brought to Can- 
nelton in September, 1862. 

This process so vividly recalled to all the citizens of 
Hancock County Captain Edmond Morgan's brief bom- 
bardment only a few months earlier that even most 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 253 

ardent Confederate sympathizers cheerfully discon- 
tinued any extended hospitality toward guests whose 
presence entailed such calamity upon their entertainers, 
so the guerillas ate their Christmas dinners elsewhere 
than in Hawesville. 

Doubly joyous, however, through the restored sense 
of security, was Cannelton's holiday merry-making, and 
a charity entertainment brought together in Mozart 
Hall a crowded assembly to witness one of the amateur 
theatrical entertainments always so popular with a gen- 
eration who never dreamed that celluloid films would 
one day supersede the spoken drama in public favour. 

Right generous, too, was the carnival programme of- 
fered — charades, tableaux vivants, and drama, inter- 
spersed with music. Misses Isabelle Beacon (Mrs. Ed- 
mond Morgan), Emeline McCollum (Mrs. Alfred 
Vaughan), and Indiana Vaughan (Mrs. Samuel King), 
were among the notable charade performers. French 
history was drawn upon for a tableau in three scenes, 
"The Divorce of Josephine," rendered with sumptuous 
fidelity to detail. Mrs. Charles H. Mason (Rachel 
Huckeby) a woman of superb appearance, imperso- 
nated the unfortunate Empress with artistic accuracy 
of costume, attitude and expression. Miss Sallie Mar- 
shall supporting her in the role of the beautiful Hor- 
tense. Captain Edward N. Powers represented Na- 
poleon, with Captain John P. Dunn as Marechal Ney. 

Appropriate to the holiday season the principal play 
staged was the ever-new "Cinderella," in which Miss 
Mary Jaseph (Mrs. John H. Wade) played the title 
part, with Miss Mollie Archer (Mrs. Schmuck-Hof- 
meister) as the fairy godmother whose wand of en- 
chantment wrought its miracle over the pumpkin. Mrs. 
John H. Thompson (Margaret Patterson), Misses Hat- 
tie Patterson (Mrs. Simeon Jaseph, Jr.), and Madge 
Armstrong (Mrs. Edwin R. Hatfield) enacted the cruel 
stepmother and haughty stepsisters. Palmer Smith 
and William Huckeby Ferguson were popular comic 
singers, and the closing tableau, "The Death of Minne- 



254 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

haha" was accompanied by a musical recitative, Miss 
Isabelle Huckeby (Mrs. de la Hunt) having composed 
her own setting to Longfellow's poetry, a melody of 
surpassing pathos, never given to publication. 

Several of the same performers, with many others, 
took part in a similar entertainment during the same 
winter, in aid of the Methodist Church; and for the 
benefit of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, which 
had been damaged by fire, the most ambitious histri- 
onic effort ever attempted in Cannelton was produced 
early in May, an abridgment of the "Merchant of 
Venice," rehearsed and staged under the personal su- 
pervision of Mrs. Hamilton Smith (Louise Rudd). 

A literary club giving particular attention to Shak- 
spere had existed for one or two winters among the 
young people, humourously styled "The Parsonage Lit- 
erary Institute," with the Rev. William Louis Gith- 
ens at its head, so that Mrs. Smith found plastic ma- 
terial ready for her moulding hand. Shylock, Joseph 
W. Snow; Duke, Edwin R. Hatfield; Bassanio, Sidney 
B. Hatfield; Antonio, Thomas James de la Hunt; Por- 
tia, Miss Isabelle Huckeby; and Nerissa, Miss Marga- 
ret Armstrong, were the leading characters of the cast. 
Contemporary accounts give high praise to the rendi- 
tion, especially the Trial Scene, where the fair young 
doctor, the "wise and excellent young man," delivered, 
with beautiful conception of masculine strength made 
subservient to the delicate perception and unbounded 
love of a cultured woman, that matchless appeal for 
mercy, the noblest lines ever penned by "sweetest 
Shakespear, Fancies childe." An element of romance 
underlay it all, by no means lost upon the audience of 
familiar friends who afterward accused Antonio of 
being more captivated by the curling ringlets escaping 
below Portia's hood, and the bewitching sweetness of 
her undisguised accents, than by the acumen of her 
legal pleading. A double bill was invariably expected 
by the audience, so the perennial "Mistletoe Bough" 
was given as the afterpiece. Miss Mollie Archer win- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 255 

ning unbounded compliments by her charmingly at- 
tractive delineation of Ginevra the Missing Bride. 

The fall of Richmond and removal of the Confed- 
erate capital to Danville filled all hearts with joy at the 
beginning of April, as it was realized that the end 
could be a matter of days only, and the tidings of Lee's 
surrender at Appomattox Court House was welcomed 
with jubilant demonstrations all over the county. 
Homes and public buildings were decorated with the 
national colours by day and illuminated at night, while 
bonfires lit the heavens, salutes of cannon and mus- 
ketry rent the air, bands played, and exultant people 
ran to and fro, shaking each other by the hand in con- 
gratulation. 

Into the midst of this universal rejoicing the news 
of Lincoln's assassination came like a bolt from the 
blue, bringing a revulsion of unspeakable terror to all. 
As after the taking of Fort Sumter, so again the fatal 
message reached Perry County by boat at an early 
hour upon a Sunday — April 16, the morning of Easter 
Day. But not even the spiritual joy of the Risen Lord 
could comfort the first outbursts of indignant grief 
over the martyred chief of a mighty nation, nor soften 
the furious passion felt toward his murderer. 

By the following day mourning draperies had sup- 
planted the tri-coloured bunting, and a public mass- 
meeting was held pursuant to call, at Cannelton, in the 
Court House solemnly festooned with black. Joshua B. 
Huckeby presided as chairman, Gabriel Schmuck act- 
ing as secretary, and the object of the meeting was im- 
pressively stated by Judge Charles H. Mason, with a 
sadness befitting the unprecedented occasion. A com- 
mittee was appointed to draw up resolutions, during 
their absence the large audience listening to brief re- 
marks from Edvdn R. Hatfield, Walter Bynum and 
G. B. T. Carr. The series of resolutions, eight in num- 
ber, were then read by Judge Mason, eloquently voicing 
the sorrow of Perry County over the dastardly crime, 
at the same time expressing a fixed determination to 



256 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

spare no effort nor sacrifice toward vindicating the 
supremacy of the government, reuniting the Union, 
and accomplishing complete restoration of national au- 
thority. 

After unanimous adoption of the resolutions by a 
rising vote, Major de la Hunt was called upon and 
spoke, with deep emotion, of how "all over the land 
from where 'the mournful and misty Atlantic' moans 
under the beetling cliffs of New England, to where the 
sunbeams and zephyrs of California's golden shores 
sighingly whisper their story to the great Pacific" the 
people were bewildered with sorrow. "The lover of his 
country," he said, "has lost the noblest of presidents ; 
the vanquished, the most benevolent of conquerors." 

A further brief address was made by Major Nich- 
olas L. Lightfoot, of Hancock County, Kentucky, who 
had spoken on the preceding day at the Court House in 
his own home town of Hawesville, where all other plans 
for Easter Day had been entirely set aside, flags draped 
in mourning, and bells tolled incessantly as for a fu- 
neral. In the morning, the Rev. Samuel C. Helm had 
preached an appropriate discourse at the Methodist 
Church South, and in the afternoon a becoming funeral 
sermon was delivered by the Rev. James H. Brown, in 
the Baptist Church, the entire community, whether 
Union or Confederate, acting and feeling truly alive to 
the great and unexpected calamity which had bereft 
Kentucky of a native son no less than a national ex- 
ecutive. 

That undaunted loyalty which has been a character- 
istic of the Switzer race from the days of Walter Fuerst 
and Herrman — asserting itself in Arnold Winkelried, 
and again in the deathless courage of ill-starred Marie 
Antoinette's Garde Suisse, immortalized by Thorwald- 
sen in his Lion of Lucerne — shone with its olden lustre 
under Indiana skies, and the valiant colonists of Tell 
City who went forth in '61 to fight for the altars and 
fires of their infant community, mourned with pro- 
foundest sorrow the loss of their beloved president in 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 257 

'65. Nowhere in Perry County was deeper sentiment 
manifested than in the memorial exercises at Tell City, 
and meetings of similar nature were held in Troy, 
Rome, Leopold and other places. On the day of the 
funeral St. Luke's Church, Cannelton, was opened for 
solemn service which a large congregation attended. 
The Episcopal burial ofRce was read by the rector, the 
Rev. William Louis Githens, and the Methodist pastor, 
the Rev. J. B. Likely, delivered an address which 
brought tears into many eyes unaccustomed to weep. 

No military occurrences followed this, save the re- 
turn from time to time of the boys in blue, and Inde- 
pendence Day witnessed a public picnic in their honour, 
held on "Brier Hill," and managed by a committee of 
women at whose head were Mrs. Charles H. Mason 
(Rachel Huckeby), Mrs. Daniel L. Armstrong (Susan 
James), and Miss Kate Kolb. General Walter Q. 
Gresham, announced as speaker of the day, was un- 
able to fulfil his engagement, and Edwin R. Hatfield 
made an able substitute in the grace of fluent oratory. 
Ferdinand Mengis, of Tell City, spoke to the Germans 
present in their mother tongue, and the sounding aisles 
of the green woods rang once more with the anthem of 
the free, "The Star-Spangled Banner." 

The knowledge that the cruel war was over filled 
"to its highest topsparkle each heart and each cup," 
though among the sturdy lads who had gone away in 
youth's flush of health, some came home as aged men 
of broken constitution, with perhaps an empty sleeve 
or frightful scars. Others had crossed the river to rest 
under the shade of the trees, in the faraway Southland 
"where all the golden year the summer roses blow." 
Whether the resting place of their sacred dust is 
marked today by gleaming marble or lost under the 
verdure of fifty fleeting years, both North and South 
have come at length to realize that for Federal and 
Confederate hero alike, 

"Glory guards, with solemn round, the bivouac of the 
dead." 

(17) 



CHAPTER XXIX 

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 

An industry which for a time during the sixties 
promised much to Cannelton, and whose failure in ful- 
filment came about through outside rather than local 
causes, was the ship-yard undertaken in the spring of 
1863 by Samuel King, who removed at that time from 
Jeffersonville to Perry County. Although born in Al- 
legheny County, Pennsylvania (October 16, 1821), he 
came of seafaring stock, his father, John W. King, 
having commanded a sailing vessel in the West Indies 
trade for many years, and his mother, Nancy Shaw, 
was also of a New England coast family. 

Purchasing from Dow Talbot the saw-mill at the 
extreme upper edge of Cannelton which had been orig- 
inally owned by the pioneer, Israel Lake, he entered 
upon the independent trade of boat building which he 
had followed through twenty-five years of work for 
others. 

His first and most successful contract was with Cap- 
tain John W. Carroll, of New Albany, for whom he 
built the hull of a fine side wheeler whose model proved 
notably fast, 255 feet long, 43 feet beam, 8 1/2 feet hold. 
At 4 p. m. Monday, November 2, 1863, the launching 
took place in presence of a very large crowd, the com- 
mander's handsome daughter christening the vessel 
with her own name, Pauline Carroll. The hull was 
then taken to New Albany where the cabin and upper 
works were added. 

In February following, work was begun on a floating 
dock of enormous size, 250 by 110 feet, 30 feet high at 
the sides and 10 feet at the ends. For its construction 
2,500 oak logs were sawed into nearly a million feet 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 259 

of lumber, a cost approximating $27,000. May 21, 
1864, the large Ben Stickney was launched for the 
Southern trade, and some smaller craft, including Cap- 
tain John Crammond's recess-wheel ferry boat Transit, 
were built complete at the Cannelton ship-yard, but 
the unwieldy dock proved a veritable white elephant 
upon King's hands. 

It was eventually sold at great sacrifice, to be towed 
to New Orleans, and, as the wane of steamboating had 
already set in. King never fully recouped his fallen 
fortunes. He continued, however, to operate the saw- 
mill until 1884, when he sold out to Anton Zellers and 
Sons, locating for the remainder of his life on a farm 
in the fertile bottom land of Union Township, between 
Derby and Dexter. By his marriage, October 16, 1867, 
to Rachel Indiana, daughter of Nicholas and Ann (Ew- 
ing) Vaughan, he had one son, whose son now resides 
on a portion of the inherited acres. 

Another contemporary enterprise, of longer dura- 
tion though now also defunct, was the pottery and tile 
works begun in 1862 by the Clark Brothers who then 
came to Cannelton from Summit County, Ohio, and for 
forty years were a prominent clan in local matters, 
being men of marked activity, interesting themselves 
in everything appertaining to the home of their 
adoption. 

They were the offspring of Roan and Margaret (De- 
Haven) Clark, representing Pennsylvania ancestry, 
and the children were: 1. Roan, m. Lucinda Carson; 
2. Abraham DeHaven, m. Emma Gest; 3. William, m. 
Alice Johnson ; 4. James, m. Rebecca Thompson ; 5. 
Elijah Curtis, m. Hester (Cotton) Clark; 6. Martha, 
m. Cyrus Clark, also of Ohio, but not a relative, 
although a nephew to Dr. Harmon S. Clark, of Cannel- 
ton. 

The respective six households of "The Clarks" 
formed a numerous and happy family connection, given 
to cordial hospitality and figuring no less in the social 
life than in business and politics of their day. Not- 



260 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

withstanding the originally large relationship, but few 
descendants of Clark name still reside in Cannelton, 
the third generation having widely scattered into other 
localities, and a pottery started many years afterward 
by Clark Brothers represents altogether a different 
family, despite close similarity of names. 

The first pottery was built in 1862 on the river front, 
for convenience of transportation, and the business 
increased to such an extent ($2,700 a month by 1877) 
that their own steamboat was purchased for carrying 
the finished product to Southern consumers. Several 
additions had more than doubled the capacity of the 
original plant, but from about that time there was a 
gradual decline in receipts. Death and other changes 
brought about different ownership. Freshet, wind- 
storm and fire wrought irreparable disaster, so the 
work was finally shut down. 

A three-story brick spoke factory was erected at the 
close of the war by a number of leading citizens, but 
owing to internal dissensions the project was 
abandoned after the expenditure of almost $8,000 on 
the building which remained idle until 1871-72. The 
Cannelton Paper Mill Company then took it over and 
began the manufacture of straw wrapping paper at 
the rate of 2,500 pounds in thirteen hours. Ten hands 
were employed and the stockholders were: Joseph F. 
Sulzer, president; Christian Rauscher, vice-president; 
Roan Clark, secretary; Peter Meyer, treasurer; John 
C. Shoemaker, Jacob Heck, Frederick Diener, Frank 
Brennan and Frederick Muller. Work continued some 
ten or fifteen years, but the edifice burned during one 
of the spring floods of the 'eighties when entirely sur- 
rounded by water and inaccessible to any fire protec- 
tion. Its ruins long stood next to the Clark pottery. 

Immediately south of the paper-mill a three-story 
brick flouring mill was built in 1868-69, under the 
name Superior Mills, with Gabriel Schmuck, Edwin R. 
Hatfield, Henry N. Wales, Joseph F. Sulzer, Thomas 
Tagg and Joseph Dusch as stockholders. Charles 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 261 

Schmuck soon became associated with his brother and 
continued to operate the mill until 1880, when it was 
sold to the brothers, Philip R. and Leonard May. They 
were natives of Prussia, born respectively December 1, 
1840, and May 23, 1842, the elder sons of Charles and 
Elizabeth (Jacoby) May, and at an early age were 
brought to Indiana by their parents, who made their 
home on a farm near Rome, until in 1864 Charles May 
was elected Sheriff of Perry County. The sons, Philip 
and Leonard, had enlisted in 1861 in Company B, Third 
Kentucky Cavalry, so on their return from the war it 
was to reside in Cannelton, where with other branches 
the May family has ever since been represented. After 
some twenty years of varying but usually indifferent 
success, in which the mill changed hands more than 
once, it finally suspended, peculiar ill-luck appearing to 
attend that quarter of town in which these industries 
of the 'sixties were located. 

A chair factory, carried on from 1872 to 1876 by 
James R. Bunce and Thomas M. Smith, in a massive 
stone structure which Judge Ballard Smith had built 
in 1857 for a cotton carpet yarn factory, failed, and 
one or two later enterprises attempted in the same 
edifice accomplished little or nothing. 

A shingle mill, started at the close of the war by 
John Stiltz, was later sold to the May Brothers and by 
them in 1880 to William Donnelly, but suspended a 
few years later and its site on the river is now occupied 
by the municipal water works and electric power plant. 

The American Cannel Coal Company's coal slide and 
tip, which terminated their dummy tramway leading 
from their Sulphur Spring mines to the river, was the 
last industry maintaining operations in Cannelton's 
early manufacturing quarter, but when the sale of coal 
to passing steamboats became a negligible quantity, it 
was abandoned and demolished, about 1910, transporta- 
tion by rail having forever drawn away business 
activity to the opposite end of town. 

The manufacture of chairs in Tell City, which has 



262 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

developed into one of her most considerable interests, 
had its beginning in 1864, when Peter Ludwig, John 
Hartman and James M. Combs invested some $3,300 in 
buildings and machinery, giving employment to about 
thirty-five men. First known as P. Ludwig and Com- 
pany, the firm became Combs, Hartman and Company, 
in 1868, when they commenced making furniture — 
bureaus, wardrobes, tables, etc., — in addition to chairs. 
In spite of vicissitudes, such as the financial panic of 
1873, and a fire on March 27, 1877, which swept away 
the entire plant at a loss of $32,000, with only $2,000 
insurance, the company has gone on through many 
changes of ownership and is now part of the Chair- 
Makers' Union. 

Ten stockholders — J. J. Walter, J. Hoby, L. Greiner, 
F. Rust, B. Wichser, J. Bergert, I. Scheuing, L. 
Schmidt and Henry Ehrensperger — founded the orig- 
inal Chair-Makers' Union in 1865, investing some 
$7,000 in building and equipment and doing most of 
their own work. The inevitable fire occurred July 27, 
1881, without insurance, leaving no recources other 
than a standing book account, but the owners rallied 
promptly and the business was soon on a stronger foot- 
ing than ever before. 

Now one of Perry County's largest industrial estab- 
lishments, its leading owners are Albert P. Fenn, one 
of Tell City's "native sons," and his brother-in-law, 
Jacob Zoercher. They are respectively, a son-in-law 
and a son of Christian Zoercher, Sr., born September 5, 
1832, in Bavaria, who came in 1851 to America and in 
1868 to Tell City, where he identified himself with the 
woodworking interests. While not strictly a pioneer, 
he lived there so long as to win for himself a place 
among the old and highly esteemed citizens, and 
through his marriage, in 1859, with Mary Christ, of 
Cincinnati, numerous descendants maintain the family 
name. 

The finished products of the Chair-Makers' Union 
are found everywhere in the United States, and its 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 263 

wagons drive into almost every township in Perry- 
County carrying chair frames to the labourers — 
oftenest women and children — who put in the cane 
seats by hand. 

A local stock company of numerous share-holders in 
1865-66 built an Agricultural Implement factory, ex- 
pending $5,000 on building and machinery. Cotton 
and hay presses were manufactured for a short time, 
but the company failed and in 1869 ;the property 
passed into the hands of twenty-eight men forming the 
Cabinet-Makers' Union. As such its career has been 
of increasing success, interrupted only by fires, from 
which the organization has each time risen to longer 
life. Shipments are now, of course, by rail, but in the 
generation of river traffic, steamboats bound for 
Memphis or New Orleans would frequently tie up for 
several hours at the Tell City wharfboat taking on 
immense cargoes of furniture and chairs. 

Schoetlin and Zuenkler, in 1865, started the Tell City 
Planing Mill, at an investment of $3,000, selling out 
two years afterward to a partnership of six men, 
whose interests were bought out, in turn, by Magnus 
Kreisle. He had learned the cabinet maker's trade in 
Germany, where he was born September 9, 1824, com- 
ing in 1844 to Cincinnati. Here he was married to 
Christine Eckhardt, and they moved in 1856 to Indian- 
apolis where their eldest son, John M. Kreisle, was 
born June 28, 1857. Locating in Tell City four years 
later, Magnus Kreisle made it his home until his death, 
March 18, 1885, at which time he was in complete 
control of the planning mill business that is yet a 
family possession. 

The Krogman distillery, established 1863 by Philippe 
and Krogman at a cost of $5,000, is another industry 
still operated by the family of its founder. August 
Krogman was born December 28, 1821, in Holstein, 
Germany, where his parents, Johann and Margrethe 
Krogman passed their lives. He learned the distilling 
business in his native land and came in 1855 to the 



264 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

United States, working in a brewery in Davenport, 
Iowa, until 1858, when the tide of German-Swiss immi- 
gration brought him in its wake to Perry County. 

Here he found employment for a few years in the 
coal mines at Cannelton, but settled in 1862 at Tell 
City, with his wife, Dora Schubert, whom he had mar- 
ried in 1856. He lived until October 5, 1905, and of 
the three children born to him the only son, William 
Krogman, carries on the inherited business. 

Frederick Voelke, Jr., who founded the Tell City 
Brewery in 1861, might have been termed a brau- 
meister by inheritance, being the eldest son of a skilled 
brewer in Hesse-Cassel, Germany, where he was born 
August 30, 1832. His parents, Frederick and Chris- 
tine (Gerhardt) Voelke, left Germany along with 
thousands of others in 1848, coming first to Pittsburgh, 
but in 1850 to Troy, where the father at once engaged 
in his regular trade, which he carried on for six years. 

The son and namesake, who had received an ex- 
ceptionally fine musical education in Prussia, spent 
several years travelling with and playing for theatrical 
companies in the Middle West and South, but on 
August 12, 1856, married Nancy, daughter of Green B. 
Taylor, one of Troy's pioneer merchants. Here he 
settled and conducted the Troy Brewery until remov- 
ing, in 1861, to Tell City, where he lived until July 26, 
1911. 

Ten children were born to his marriage and the man- 
sion which he built is still one of Tell City's hand- 
somest residences, on a site of commanding elevation 
in Eighth (Main) street, and is one of the very few 
homesteads in the town still occupied by the third 
generation of the original family. The brewing busi- 
ness had been discontinued before his death and the 
buildings were demolished when the property passed 
into the hands of Mr. and Mrs. William Krogman 
(Claudine Voelke). An artistically terraced lawn now 
beautifies their former site, and from the City Park 
gives to the stately old home a picturesque approach. 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 265 

as well as an appropriate setting for its Italian villa 
style of architecture. 

The pioneer breweries early opened by Reis and En- 
debruck and by Peter Schreck were not long in exist- 
ence, but the business established in 1858 by Charles 
Becker and Alois Beuter has gone on as the Tell City 
Brewery up to the present Beuter withdrawing after 
one year's partnership. 

Common beer was brewed at first, but since the erec- 
tion, in 1870, of a three-story brick building at a cost 
of $3,000, the product has been lager beer of a quality 
not inferior to the Milwaukee or St. Louis article, 
whose widespread sale has done its part in adding to 
the fame of Tell City. 

Within the decade of the 'sixties other men located in 
Tell City who left their mark upon the community's 
development and came to be looked upon by a later 
generation as 'early settlers,' although not original 
Swiss Colonists. 

August Menninger, born November 21, 1826, at 
Frankfurt-am-Main, a son of Andreas and Barbara 
(Pauly) Menninger, engaged in 1860 in the sawmill 
industry at Tell City, building up an important busi- 
ness which he long managed with great success. He 
had been well educated in the Fatherland, and gave 
close attention to the public school system in his adopt- 
ed home, that its every advantage might be gained by 
his children, of whom nine were born to him through 
his marriage in 1850 with Katharina Schmidberger, 
likewise a native of Germany. 

August Schreiber, a son of Heinrich and Wilhelmine 
(Colshorn) Schreiber, born December 6, 1837, in 
Prussia, located at Tell City in the year 1866, twelve 
years after coming to America. His education in 
ancient and modern languages, as well as science, had 
fitted him thoroughly for the druggist's profession 
upon which he entered, making it a life work so that 
he attained the highest rank among pharmacists of 



266 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Perry County during his long years of uninterrupted 
residence. 

Active in the fraternal orders, he held positions of 
responsibility in each to which he belonged, and was 
the choice of his fellow-citizens as one of Tell City's 
early mayors. By his marriage, August 25, 1861, to 
Eva Schloth, a daughter and a son were born, of whom 
the latter follows in his father's professional footsteps 
and resides in the old home. 

In military circles Tell City's ranking officer stands 
as General Gustave Kemmerling, though his record of 
gallantry had been written on History's page, for his 
native land no less than for his adopted country, before 
he came into Perry County at the close of the War 
Between the States. The son of John and Katharina 
(Hueten) Kemmerling, born December 9, 1819, in 
Rhenish Prussia, he was a commandant of militia in 
his birthplace during the revolution of 1848, coming 
two years afterward to America. 

In 1861, at Cincinnati, he was made Captain of 
Company F. Ninth Ohio Infantry, and his repeated 
promotions tell the story of his bravery, — major, lieu- 
tenant-colonel, colonel and brigadier-general, although 
on account of ill-health he declined this highest com- 
mission, tendered him after the battle of Chickamauga. 
Marrying in 1856, Gertrude, daughter of Benedict and 
Gertrude (Effinger) Steinauer, Tell City became his 
home in 1865. Of two children born to them only one 
survives, Captain Gustave Kemmerling, II, a graduate 
of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, now 
government inspector of machinery and materials for 
the New York Ship-building Company, with head- 
quarters at Camden, New Jersey. 

While his settling in Tell City was early in the de- 
cade of the 'seventies, it was also as a wounded soldier 
that John T. Patrick became a citizen of the commun- 
ity where for two-score years his was a familiar 
figure. A slight irregularity of step served as a daily 
reminder of the battle of Stone River where he was 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 267 

wounded and disabled for further service, with Com- 
pany G, Eighty-first Indiana Infantry, in which he had 
enlisted when only twenty years of age. 

Born, April 6, 1842, in Crawford County, his parents 
were John D. and Mary (Powers) Patrick, both na- 
tives of Maryland, who came about 1840 to Indiana. 
John T, Patrick was a successful teacher in his young 
manhood, then served as Clerk of the Perry Circuit 
Court from 1876 to 1884. During this time he studied 
law and in May, 1884, was admitted to the bar, where 
he continued as an active practitioner until his death, 
June 19, 1915. He was twice married; in 1879 to Mar- 
garet Menninger, and in 1883 to Anna Menninger, both 
daughters of August and Katharina (Schmidberger) 
Menninger, and a numerous family of children survive 
their father, treasuring his precepts and his example. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

ADYEVILLE, BRANCHVILLE, BRISTOW, SIBERIA 

St. Augustine's parish at Leopold, with the Rev. 
Augustus Bessonies as its founder, was the mother 
church of the Roman Catholic faith in Perry County, 
and Troy may be considered one of its elder children 
in the work upon which Father Bessonies actively en- 
gaged. In 1849 sufficient ground was acquired there 
for building and cemetery purposes and a brick struc- 
ture, 33 by 48 feet, was erected and dedicated to St. 
Pius, the patron saint of gentle 'Pio Nono' (Piux IX) 
who was then Pope. 

The Rev. J Contin was the first resident pastor. 

In course of long years parsonage and school were 
added and in the early 'eighties a new brick church was 
built. Its interior finish and decoration is probably 
the handsomest of its kind in Perry County, attesting 
the generosity of its congregation whose devotional 
spirit has been further shown through the number of 
its members who have embraced the religious life in 
conventual or monastic orders, or in the priesthood. 

While it is incontestable that spiritual needs received 
less consideration than material affairs in early Tell 
City, there were among the colonists some twenty-five 
Roman Catholic families, by whom St. Paul's parish 
was organized in 1859, the first offices being performed 
by the Rev. Michael Marendt, of Cannelton, who built 
the original church at a cost, with site, of $900. Dur- 
ing several years directly following. Father Marendt 
was absent in South America, so the work was inter- 
mittently supplied from Cannelton or from the Bene- 
dictine Abbey at St. Meinrad, until 1863, when the Rev. 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 269 

Ferdinand Hundt took up his residence as the first 
settled pastor. 

The present edifice was commenced in 1870 when its 
cornerstone was laid by the Rev. Bede O'Connor, but 
after the walls were roofed, in 1873, the work lang- 
uished until 1877, when the Rev. Edward Faller, who 
then transferred from Cannelton to Tell City, pushed 
to completion the work toward which he gave largely 
from his individual means. The building is 48 by 114, 
with a nave 40 feet high in the clear and twin towers 
reaching a height of 134 feet. In architecture it de- 
parts strikingly from the familiar ecclesiastical Gothic 
type, belonging to the Byzantine order, the same style 
as more recently adopted for the immense Westminster 
pro-cathedral built in London since 1900, which is the 
most imposing Roman Catholic church ever erected in 
England. Parsonage and school house were also the 
fruit of Father Faller's labours, though a more exten- 
sive school building was put up in 1814, with modern 
equipment throughout, in which the Benedictine sister^ 
conduct a large school along certified lines of training. 

In 1866 the First German Evangelical Society was 
organized in Tell City, with Ernst Birnstengel, Henry 
Keller, Justus Rode, Jacob Kleiber and Ludwig Wade 
as trustees, who in the following year built a church 
costing $3,500. The Rev. Jacob Knaus, of St. John's 
Church, Cannelton, was the first pastor, but a Sunday 
School of fifty scholars was conducted by B. Steerlin. 
This has grown into one of the largest and most vigour- 
ous in the county, being foremost in activity in the 
Perry County Sunday School Association, which is 
afl^liated with the state organization. It is an index 
to the work of the entire local body, which was at first 
a free society, belonging to no synod prior to May, 
1885. The costly modern brick church, built 1913, con- 
tains the finest pipe organ in Perry County, a memorial 
to the late Adolph Zuelly, and is the centre of devoted 
endeavour for a large and earnest congregation. 

Between 1872 and 1874 services of the Episcopal 



270 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Church were held in Tell City by the Rev. Dr. A. Kin- 
ney Hall, rector of St. Luke's parish, Cannelton, and a 
small frame structure under the name of Grace Church 
was built at the corner of Ninth and Pestalozzi streets. 
The Right Reverend Joseph Cruikshank Talbott, D.D., 
LL.D., Bishop of Indianapolis, officiated there at a con- 
firmation service, September 28, 1873, but the time was 
not yet ripe for exclusively English missionary work 
and the effort was dropped a year later upon Dr. Hall's 
departure from Cannelton. The Brazee, Hubbs and 
Combs families had been the principal supporters dur- 
ing its brief existence, and all these resumed their 
membership in St. Luke's parish. 

Rural parishes of the Roman Catholic Church in the 
county commenced with St. Croix (Holy Cross) 
Church, in Oil Township several miles north of Leo- 
pold, where the families of Jean Dupaquier and several 
others settled about 1849 and were soon visited by 
Father Bessonies. The Rev. J. P. Dion, from Cannel- 
ton, organized and named the mission in 1855, buying 
forty acres of ground on which the first log church and 
parsonage were built. The cornerstone of the present 
stone church was laid June 26, 1882, under the pastor- 
ate of the Rev. Charles F. Bilger. Father Marendt in 
1860 purchased in Anderson Township for church and 
school purposes an acre of land on which stood a small 
frame building, saying the first mass in what became 
St. Mark's Mission. Father Dion added more land, and 
in 1867 work was begun upon a stone church, 36 by 65, 
finished after two years labour and still in use. It now 
has a resident pastor, the Rev. John B. Unversagt hav- 
ing been the first, and is completely equipped, oflfering 
privileges of Divine Worship to a large though scat- 
tered flock. Its annual midsummer picnics are a dis- 
tinctive feature of county social life, bringing together 
a large crowd for jollification. 

Four miles from Rome, in the German Ridge vicinity, 
Father Marendt built St. Peter's Church in 1868, but 
its attendance has been so diminished through deaths. 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 271 

removals, etc., that regular services are no longer 
kept up. 

In March, 1869, St. Martin's Mission was organized 
in the extreme north of Clark Township near the Du- 
bois County line, where a number of Russo-Polish 
families (indicated by such names as Bombolaski, 
Skrynecke and others) had settled as the latest foreign 
colony coming into Perry County. A town site to 
which the name of Siberia was given was platted by 
the Rev. Isidore Hobi, O. S. B., and the ground prac- 
tically surveyed February 18-19-20, 1869, by Jacob 
Marendt; with George Uebelher and Mathias Warken 
as his chain carriers, Nathan Hobbs and Michael 
Uebelher, flag bearers. 

The village lies in the northeast quarter of south- 
west quarter of Section 22, Township 3, South, Range 
3, West, and contains forty-nine lots each 100 feet 
square, with three fifty-foot streets — Perry, Dubois 
and Spencer — running from north to south, intersected 
from east to west by six others of the same width, be- 
ginning at the south, with Church street, then First, 
Second, Third, Fourth and Oakbush. Father Hobi's 
acknowledgment of the plat, dedicating these streets 
to public use, was acknowledged March 13, 1873, be- 
fore Joseph George Stum, a notary public for Spencer 
County, and on August 12, 1874, was entered on Page 
396 of Deed Book 6, by James Peter, Recorder Perry 
County. 

Irregular services were held by the clergy from St. 
Meinrad's Abbey for several years after the church 
was built and blessed, the Rev. Charles F. Bilger be- 
coming about 1880 the first regular pastor in conjunc- 
tion with St. Croix. St. John's-on-the-Ridge, also in 
the northern part of the county, and Sacred Heart, near 
Galey's Landing in eastern Union Township, were the 
latest rural stations established. 

In 1866 Jesse C. Esarey, a descendant of the pioneer 
family who were the earliest settlers of Oil Township 
in 1810, erected a saw and grist mill near one of the 



272 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

branches of Oil Creek, where a settlement began to 
spring up, and in 1874 Daniel R. McKim laid out a 
regular town plat to which the name Branchville was 
given, Miss Mary C. Reily becoming the first post- 
master. Its location is on the section line between the 
southeast quarter of Section 13 and the northwest 
quarter of Section 24. 

John S. Frakes and John C. Newton, partners in 
general merchandise, were the first business men and 
Dr. John W. Lang the first physician. The Rev. Wil- 
liam H. Sabine dedicated the Methodist Church built 
in 1867 near Branchville, although services had been 
held in school houses and other buildings ever since 
1817. Branchville Lodge No. 496, F. and A. M., was 
chartered in 1873, with John S. Frakes, W. M. ; Hiram 
Esarey, Jasper Deen, James S. Frakes, John H. Deen, 
John D. Carr and Absalom C. Miller as charter mem- 
bers. A two-story building, 20 by 40, costing $1,000, 
was erected by the order and the lodge is still in exist- 
ence. 

Adyeville's first settler was John E. Newton, who 
opened a store there in a log cabin about 1848, and the 
point became locally known as Bridgeport, because of 
the old-fashioned covered bridge across Anderson 
River, on the highroad leading from Clark Township 
into Harrison Township, Spencer County. It thus ap- 
pears on early state maps, but in 1861 when a post- 
office was established the name Adyeville was con- 
ferred, taken from a prominent resident, Andrew J. 
Adye, who became the first postmaster. 

Twelve years later when the town-plat of Adyeville 
was surveyed by Daniel R. McKim, County Surveyor, 
June 18, 1873, he was the owner of all but four lots out 
of eighteen in the new village, the others being in 
possession of William T. Chewning, A. J. Mills and 
George Zeiler. Main street, thirty feet wide, followed 
the county road with Walnut and Willow respectively 
north and south of it. State, Cherry and Church were 
the three streets crossing these at right angles, with a 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 273 

public square at the intersection of Main and State and 
a church lot, 418 by 104.5 feet, at the corner of Walnut 
and Church streets. James Peter was Recorder of 
Perry County when this survey was entered, December 
2, 1873, in Miscellaneous Record Book B, Page 482. 

Andrew J. Adye, who was born January 15, 1831, in 
Chautauqua County, New York, was the fifth son of 
Andrew and Laura (Whicher) Adye, who removed in 
1837 from the Empire State to the Hoosier State, find- 
ing a location in Clark Township where the father died 
in 1845. Andrew, Jr., when a youth, made numerous 
flatboat voyages out of Anderson River — then con- 
sidered a 'navigable' stream — down the Ohio and Mis- 
sissippi. At the age of twenty-three, however, he 
settled down to mercantile pursuits near the home farm 
and December 13, 1857, was married to Barbara Ann, 
daughter of Jacob and Sarah (Miles) Kesner, four 
children being offspring of the marriage. 

He was practically the founder of Adyeville, enter- 
ing its town plat in 1873 and serving nineteen years as 
postmaster. While almost self-educated, his own re- 
search made him a man of unusual attainments, espe- 
cially in nature study and the allied sciences, and he 
discovered several medical remedies of vegetable com- 
pound, which earned prosperity for him in his later 
years. As township trustee and county commissioner 
he held elective offices, being an ardent exponent of the 
Jacksonian Democracy taught by "Old Hickory" whose 
name he bore. 

The Adye family were vigourous Baptists, affiliating 
with the church of that belief organized in 1847, and 
were also connected with an early school of exceptional 
merit, conducted for several years at private expense 
in their neighbourhood. 

Another name identified with the Baptist Church, 
besides prominent politically and otherwise in Clark 
Township during its early days is that of McKim, John 
McKim, who was one of the two magistrates chosen 
at the first tov/nship election in 1819, having reared a 

(18) 



274 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

family of ten children by his marriage with Permelia, 
daughter of the pioneer Ephraim Cummings. Thirty 
years later (1849) he was elected Representative of 
the Legislature by the Democratic party. A son, 
Daniel R. McKim, served sixteen years as County Sur- 
veyor, being elected to the office in the campaigns of 
1856, 1870, 1876 and 1880. Another son, the youngest, 
William M. McKim, enlisted August 20, 1862, in Com- 
pany K, Thirty-fourth Kentucky Infantry, for three 
years and was discharged June 24, 1865. 

Active Methodists in the same locality were Thomas 
and Sarah (Stapleton) Wheeler, both natives of Ken- 
tucky, through whose seven children an extensive pro- 
geny is the result, the third generation having scat- 
tered into other localities, some of its members having 
attained special prominence in medical circles of 
Indianapolis. 

Wheeler, as a Perry County name, is also particular- 
ly identified with Tobin Township, whither came at a 
very early day James and Sarah (Claycomb) Wheeler, 
natives of Pennsylvania and Maryland, whose family 
lines met in Breckinridge County, Kentucky. Six sons 
and five daughters were born to this marriage, most 
of whom in turn married in their own neighbourhood, 
so the connection is now a very wide one, represented 
far beyond the original county and state. 

Van Winkle is the name of earliest conjunction with 
the settlement of Bristow, which has grown to be the 
principal town of Clark Township and northern Perry 
County. Alexander and Phoebe (Miller) Van Winkle, 

William T. and Emeline ( ) Van Winkle, Elisha 

and Letitia (Jarboe) Weedman were owners of the 
site surveyed by Daniel R. McKim, Deputy County 
Surveyor, signed and acknowledged by them March 14, 
1875, before Walter Hunter, County Surveyor. 

Fifteen lots, besides a school lot, were embraced in 
the original plat, described on Page 68, of Miscallane- 
ous Record Book C, by Israel L. Whitehead, County 
Recorder, March 16, 1875. The location was well 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 275 

chosen, just north of the East fork of Anderson River, 
giving water power for a successful mill. Main street 
was the principal thoroughfare laid off, 66 feet wide, 
running due north and south. Oak street, 49 feet wide 
is parallel to it, one block east, with a I6I/2 foot alley 
bisecting the blocks, which were crossed at right angles 
by Water and First streets, each 23 feet in width. 

Elisha S. Weedman opened the first store ; the second 
being kept by T, J. Duncan in connection with the post- 
office, which he held until Smith McAllister was ap- 
pointed his successor. Thomas K. Miles conducted a 
hotel for a number of years, besides dealing extensive- 
ly in horses and stock on his large farm. The first 
resident physician, still one of Bristow's foremost 
citizens in every movement looking toward its growth, 
was Dr. William Lomax, who settled there permanently 
in the spring of 1881, following his graduation from 
Indiana Medical College. Two years later he married 
Hettie, daughter of Thomas J. and Sarah (Jeffers) 
Dugan, and Bristow has been their home continuously 
ever since, and the birthplace of their children. 

The growth of the village in twenty-five years called 
for additional building lots, so Main street and Oak 
street were continued northward and Second street laid 
out to cross them, extending from the Baptist Church 
lot to the county road leading northeast from Bristow 
to Adyeville. This survey was made October 19, 1896, 
for William T. and Emeline Van Winkle, William and 
Hettie Lomax, Jacob H. and Nancy Aders, with Samuel 
Lasher and John Lanman, Trustees of the Baptist 
Church; although not placed on record until May 17, 
1900. Four years later, July 22, 1904, William and 
Emeline Van Winkle entered for record a second addi- 
tion lying west of the original town, containing nine 
lots, through which Van Winkle street leads, parallel 
with Main. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

ROME ACADEMY. 

The same act of Legislature, approved December 22, 
1858, which accomplished the re-location of the county 
seat at Cannelton provided for transforming the old 
court-house into an academy, Elijah B. Huckeby, John 
C. Shoemaker and Job Hatfield being named as the 
first board of trustees. The citizens of Rome sub- 
scribed a fund of $2,000, which was invested in first 
mortgage bonds, the interest to be used for keeping 
the building in order as a school-house. 

Some necessary re-modeling, etc., v/as done during 
the summer following the actual removal of the county 
offices and records, and in October, 1860, the school was 
formally opened as Rome Academy, with N. V. Evans, 
A.M., principal, and C. W. De Bruler, assistant. The 
first session began with an enrollment of forty pupils, 
which soon increased to sixty. A course of study 
planned to continue forty weeks was outlined as fol- 
lows: Primary Grade, — reading, writing, ortho- 
graphy, mental arithmetic and primary geography; 
tuition $6 per term. Second Grade, — arithmetic, gram- 
mar, geography, ancient and modern history, analysis 
and elocution, tuition, $8. Third Grade, — natural and 
mental philosophy, algebra, geology, hygiene and book- 
keeping; tuition, $12. Fourth Grade, — higher mathe- 
matics, chemistry, rhetoric, composition and the lan- 
guages; tuition, $18. Music, $20; use of piano, $4; 
vocal music, $2; drawing and painting, $3. Intellec- 
tual ability marked both Evans and De Bruler so that 
their efforts brought the academy into speedy promin- 
ence in a day which saw small institutions flourish. 

Lack of endowment forced the instructors to depend 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 277 

upon tuition fees for their pay and such recompense 
was insufficient to prove satisfactory, even after 
augmented by interest from the mortgage fund. The 
Reverend William M. Daily, A.M., succeeded Evans as 
principal in 1861. A scholar of advanced culture, Dr. 
Daily was one of the foremost educators in the state, 
having occupied a few years earlier the president's 
chair of Indiana University at Bloomington. Rome 
Academy attained under him even higher eminence 
than when Evans was principal, the attendance in- 
creasing and about the same course of instruction being 
pursued. 

One year alone, however, was the period of his 
service, also, and the Reverend William S. Hooper was 
placed at the head in 1862. Miss Susan Hooper, his 
sister, a woman of grace and accomplishment, was his 
co-worker and through their energetic efforts the in- 
stitution apparently flourished, closing in June, 1883, 
with an attendance of ninety pupils. 

Professor Joseph W. Snow, a graduate of Genesee 
College, took charge in the autumn of 1863, with Miss 
Flint as his assistant, but their year's work was less 
successful than their predecessors' had been, although 
an exceptional standard in French and music was main- 
tained through the instruction given by Emile Longue- 
mare. He belonged to an aristocratic old French fam- 
ily of St. Louis, Southern sympathizers, who had cast 
in their entire fortune with the Confederacy and were 
thus brought into reduced circumstances. 

His uncle and aunt, Charles and Felicite (LeGuer- 
rier) Longuemare, had come to Indiana after equip- 
ping at their private expense a full Missouri regiment 
of which their son, Charles Longuemare, Jr., v>^as cap- 
tain. A romantic incident of Winston Churchill's 
novel "The Crisis," where a young Southers officer 
breaks his sword rather than yield it to an enemy, was 
recognized in St. Louis as an actual occurrence in the 
career of Captain Charles Longuemare, Jr. 

He took for his wife an Indiana girl, Anna, daugh- 



278 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

ter of James and Ellen (Donnelly) Hardin, of "Hardin 
Grove" near Rome, where one of their daughters yet 
lives on her inherited portion of the old estate, the 
other marrying Major Harrison Jackson Price, of the 
Thirteenth Infantry, U. S. A. Emile Longuemare also 
married into a Perry County family, Josephine, daugh- 
ter of Adam and Jane (Wheeler) Ackarman. 

At this time the board of academy trustees was 
headed by William Valentine Reynolds, and through 
him the building was leased to St. Luke's Episcopal 
Church in Cannelton, the parish taking over its con- 
trol and changing the name to St. Albans' Academy. 
As such it was managed for one year by James R. 
Rafter, but proved unprofitable so the lease was not 
renewed. 

The Baptists next took charge, installing the Rever- 
end I. W. Bruner as principal, but the attendance and 
resources had steadily dwindled ever since the Hoopers 
left, so after two years of experiment the property 
was returned to the Board, who then arranged to have 
it used as a part of the public school system. 

Since that time its teachers have been paid from the 
public fund, except for various spring and summer 
normal schools, sustained by personal subscription. 
Perhaps the most noteworthy among these — both for 
the quality of instruction given and the class of pupils 
in attendance — was that conducted in the 'eighties by 
Howard M. Royal and his wife, Mary H. (Batson) 
Royal, whose long career as successful educators has 
given them unique distinction upon the muster-roll of 
Perry County teachers during a half-century of con- 
tinuous labour. 

The Reynolds family represented old Yankee stock 
of New England though their coming into Perry Coun- 
ty was through Hardin and Grayson Counties in Ken- 
tucky. William Rhodes Reynolds, a son of Richard 
and Esther Reynolds, of Providence, Rhode Island, had 
there married Sarah Jane Tower, daughter of Mathew 
Tower, lineally descended from that John Tower, of 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 279 

Hingham, Massachusetts, whose descendants are so 
widespread that a copious volume of family history has 
been written in the present generation by a member 
bearing the ancestral name with distinction, Charle- 
magne Tower, sometime ambassador to Germany. 

William R, and Sarah (Tower) Reynolds removed 
to Indiana in 1825 with the eldest two — William Valen- 
tine and Alonzo Davis — of eight children that were 
born to them, living for twenty-five years in Leaven- 
worth, but in 1851 locating at Rome, where the re- 
mainder of their lives was spent. William V. was 
twice married, first to Mary, a daughter of Samuel 
Frisbie, and second to Elizabeth Gardner, by whom he 
was the father of three children. Alonzo D. married 
Caroline Woodford, daughter of Julius and Sarah 
(Phelps) Woodford, (her mother belonging to that 
New Jersey family which William Walter Phelps repre- 
sented in the diplomatic service,) and their children 
were several in number. One of the daughters, Sarah 
Phelps Reynolds, married John William Minor, of 
Rome, himself of the third generation in Indiana of a 
family name long notable in the Old Dominion. 

Nicholas Minor I was an extensive landholder in 
Loudoun County, Virginia, who gave to the town of 
Leesburg the ground composing the public square upon 
which the court-house and county buildings are situ- 
ated. His wife was Mary Spence, and their son, 
Nicholas Minor II, married Mary Stark, coming with 
her in (or about) 1780 to Nelson County, Kentucky, 
where several children were born to them, so the name 
is found in adjacent counties of that state and came 
early into Breckinridge County, along with the allied 
families of Stephens and Holt from which Stephens- 
port and Holt Station received their titles. 

Nicholas III was the pioneer Minor crossing into 
Indiana for permanent residence, settling in Perry 
County not far from his Kentucky relatives, where he 
married Nancy Connor (or O'Connor) by whom he 
was the father of six sons — William Stark, Hadley 



280 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Jefferson, George S., Robert, Spence, and Richard Con- 
nor — and two daughters — Martha Belle and Catherine. 
Three of these children died unmarried, although living 
to mature age, but the others have widely perpetuated 
the family stock. 

William Stark Minor, who for many years carried 
on a water-mill on Anderson Creek, took as his wife 
Almerine Lamar, a member of that pioneer family 
from which Lamar Township, Spencer County, re- 
ceived its name, and their children have shown traits 
of heredity in entering the professions of finance, edu- 
cation and the law. William Guthrie Minor, now 
cashier of the Cannelton National Bank, was elected 
Clerk of Perry County in 1890, holding the office four 
years, and was chosen Treasurer in 1902. His brother, 
Oscar Curtis Minor, represented Perry and Spencer 
Counties as joint-Senator from 1898 to 1902, and has 
served several terms as prosecuting attorney. 

Hadley Jefferson Minor married Eleanor, daughter 
of John Shoemaker, a native of Pennsylvania, by his 
first wife, Rachel Tabor. Adam Shoemaker, his father, 
was of German extraction and came through Ohio into 
Kentucky bringing his wife, Catherine, and the several 
children born to them, including John, Adam, Jacob 
and Stephen. 

All these became pioneer settlers of Perry County, 
entering lands while Indiana was yet a territory and 
serving their fellow-citizens in various public capaci- 
ties. Adam Shoemaker II was one of the commission- 
ers appointed by Governor Ray under an act of the 
Thirteenth General Assembly, approved January 21, 
1830, to re-locate the seat of justice in Dubois County, 
which resulted in removing the county seat from 
Portersville to Jasper. He had taught school at Troy 
during the 'twenties for a time while Abraham Lincoln 
was a pupil, Lincoln himself relating this fact to a 
nephew, John C. Shoemaker, whom he met in Indian- 
apolis when on the way from Springfield to Washing- 
ton for his inauguration in 1861, Shoemaker being then 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 281 

in the state Senate. Stephen Shoemaker was elected 
Justice of the Peace in 1820 ; John Shoemaker, in 1840, 
and Jacob Shoemaker in 1843, while John Shoemaker 
was Sheriff from 1828 to 1828. 

John William Minor, son of Hadley J. and Eleanor 
(Shoemaker) Minor, was elected Auditor of Perry 
County in 1874, serving eight years, and removing 
later from Cannelton to Indianapolis where he became 
a prominent capitalist and a valuably influential mem- 
ber of the Democratic party, although never again con- 
senting to run for office. His sister, Zerelda Minor, 
married Lawrence Brannon Huckeby, son of Elijah B. 
and Nancy (Groves) Huckeby, of Rome, afterward 
making their home in New Albany for many years. 

From the second marriage of John Shoemaker, with 
Sarah Chapman, by birth a New Yorker of English 
lineage, was born April 8, 1826, John Chapman Shoe- 
maker, the first of Perry County's native sons elected 
to a state office (Auditor of State, 1870) and than 
whom none attained greater success at the price of self- 
reliance, tenacious purpose and indefatigable effort 
through all the affairs of life. 

Increasing knowledge of sociology and the scientific 
study of eugenics have completely verified what was 
formerly held as a mere theory — the potent influence of 
ancestry upon both physical and mental organisms ; so 
that in seeking for the elements of success and tracing 
intellectual endowments to their ancestral sources, it 
must be admitted that no better mingling of national 
blood could be found than the Anglo-Saxon and Teu- 
tonic races which were blended in John Chapman Shoe- 
maker. 

As a mere child his quiet persistence was remarkable, 
and an interesting anecdote is told of his winning a 
Sunday School prize once offered in Rome to the pupil 
memorizing and reciting within a specified time the 
largest number of verses from the New Testament. 
This was a favourite spiritual exercise of an earlier 
generation, regarded as a stimulus to youthful piety. 



282 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

and one devout lad, considered a village prodigy, out- 
stripped all competitors at a bound by repeating four 
chapters. It was assumed that he had so completely 
distanced every rival that the contest was thought 
virtually over, but on the following Sunday young 
"John C." (as he was always called) quietly recited 
nine chapters in full. He had made up his mind to 
win, and the prize — a handsome Bible — was a lifelong 
cherished possession. 

Reared on his father's farm, agriculture claimed his 
attention and he was the first to realize — far ahead of 
his time — the latent possibilities of Perry County hill- 
sides, with their southern exposure toward the Ohio 
River, for the growing of high-grade fruit. In 1859 he 
purchased from various owners tracts of land in Tobin 
Township, aggregating several hundred acres, seven 
miles east of Cannelton, fronting the Ohio River be- 
tween Millstone and Deer Creeks, where he planted 
what was then the largest fruit farm in the state. 

On the highest eminence, 275 feet above high water 
mark, commanding a glorious view of river and fertile 
valley for many miles, he built the substantial wooden 
dwelling planned with striking originality in cruciform 
shape, all its first floor rooms having large fireplaces 
into an immense central chimney. Until his election in 
1870 as Auditor of State necessitated removal with his 
family to Indianapolis, he made this his home, and 
"Shoemaker Farm" became a Mecca for pilgrims seek- 
ing wisdom in practical horticulture. 

The profound research which he had done for several 
years, on a smaller scale as an amateur, while holding 
office at Rome, here found material expression in the 
quality of fruit he was able to grow. His apples won 
many first prizes at the Indiana State Fairs, and his 
willingness to share with others the results of his ex- 
periments soon distinguished him as a leading pomolo- 
gist of the Middle West. Agricultural journals sought 
his contributions as authoritative, and articles from his 
pen published in the Cannelton Reporter during the 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 283 

'sixties are still quoted as standard on many points. A 
sight of rare beauty were the Shoemaker orchards 
when in full bloom or bearing, and old steamboatmen 
still relate how a glimpse of them was eagerly watched 
for by passengers when traveling past. On river 
charts the name "Shoemaker's Landing" is still used 
to designate the stopping place thus known during 
three-score years. 

Through frequent changes in its subsequent owner- 
ship, and and the negligence of non-residents, the estate 
had fallen into almost complete disintegration by 1912, 
but its wonderful latent possibilities caught the eye 
of an enthusiastic young Evansville man — Frank 
Igiehart Odell. His college-trained mind logically 
reasoned from cause to effect, and he at once set to 
work practically carrying out in Southern Indiana the 
horticultural theories he had mastered among apple- 
growers of the Pacific coast. 

In conjunction with his father. Captain I. H. Odell, 
and his brothers — Harry Nicholas Odell and Robert 
Levi Odell — he once more brought together by pur- 
chase the original estate, with some important addi- 
tions required to round out its acreage and immediate- 
ly commenced a heroic rehabilitation of the entire five 
hundred acres. Vigourous treatment was applied the 
remaining trees, thousands of new trees were set out, 
modern scientific methods everywhere introduced, and 
while the work is yet too new to have attained exten- 
sive results, it is full of promise. The mansion has 
been restored as a centre of hospitality by Captain and 
Mrs. Odell (Anna Igiehart) and the name of **Sunny- 
crest" has already made for itself a place among 
Indiana orchards of note. 

John C. Shoemaker, when only twenty-one, was 
elected county treasurer, serving six years in an office 
demanding not only strict business habits, but un- 
questionable integrity. He was married October 13, 
1850, to Mahala, daughter of John Stephenson, one of 
Perry County's pioneer Virginian immigrants, an early 



284 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

associate judge and justice of the peace. Several chil- 
dren were born to them, but only two daughters grew 
to maturity and married, so the present generation of 
Shoemakers carrying forward the name in Perry 
County are his collaterals, the direct descendants of 
John Shoemaker I, by his first wife, Rachel Tabor. 

From the Treasurer's office John C. Shoemaker was 
chosen Auditor in 1853, as a Whig, but on the dismem- 
berment of that party affiliated with the Democrats, 
who, in 1858, elected him senator for the district com- 
prising Perry, Spencer and Warrick Counties. From 
that time up to his death, December, 1905, he was an 
active Democrat, high in the councils of his party. 

While in the Senate he introduced the bill simplify- 
ing township management by placing the business in 
the hands of a single trustee instead of a board — three 
trustees, a secretary and a treasurer, — thus abolishing 
much cumbersome and complicated machinery, with its 
resultant friction and inefficiency. The work of county 
auditors, also, was materially condensed through meas- 
ures of his suggestion, few legislators of Indiana hav- 
ing displayed greater resources of usefulness than 
John C. Shoemaker. In 1868 he was elected from Perry 
County as representative, and again brought forward 
in the lower house his eminently practical views of 
legislation. 

During his years of service as Auditor of State — an 
office secondary only to the Governor's in actual im- 
portance — his administration elicited universal praise 
from the outside press, no less than from all Indiana, 
journals of such status as the Louisville Courier- Jour- 
nal and the Cincinnati Enquirer terming him "a model 
officer for Auditor of State." After retiring, in 1873, 
he purchased a controlling interest in the Indianapolis 
Sentinel, becoming president of the company, and from 
the time he gave its affairs his personal attention, 
about 1876, its struggle against misfortune became a 
winning fight after years of continuous loss. Out 
of chaos he brought system, extravagance gave way to 
economy, and success took the place of disaster. 



CHAPTER XXXII 

FIRST TEACHERS' INSTITUTE. 

Under a law enacted by the Legislature of 1867 the 
county commissioners were required annually to ap- 
propriate the sum of $50 (since increased to $100) to 
defray the expense of a County Teachers' Institute, 
and the first assemblage of this character in Perry 
County convened on August 26 of that year, at Can- 
nelton, for a session of five days. 

No complete record of the proceedings remains, 
though outline accounts published indicate an enjoy- 
able programme of recitations, drills, illustrations, dis- 
cussions and lectures. The enrollment showed a total 
of forty-one, scarcely one-third the average number 
now attending the regular sessions, but it is a note- 
worthy circumstance that two of the teachers then 
present are still (1915) active educators of the county, 
and hold a record of unbroken attendance. 

Many more have long since heard and answered the 
roll-call from the life beyond. Some who were then 
teachers remain as residents of Perry County, others 
are living elsewhere and the present generation knows 
them under names which matrimony has changed. 
The officers were J. T. Martin, president ; Lizzie White- 
head (Mrs. James J. Wheeler), secretary; Sallie Pat- 
terson (Mrs. Irving Jones), clerk; MolHe (Drumb) 
Gregory (Mrs. Andrew J. McCutchan), Viona May 
(Mrs. Mathias M. Howard) and John W. Lang, pro- 
gramme committee. The others registering were: 
Adehne Knights (Mrs. James McGuiney), Emeline Mc- 
Collum (Mrs. Alfred Vaughan), Nancy Vaughan (Mrs. 
Wright-Abbot), Mary H. Batson (Mrs. Howard M. 
Royal), Josephine Batson (Mrs. Leander Yarito), 



286 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Elizabeth Batson (Mrs. James Daniel), Sarah Osborn 
(Mrs. Griffin Buchanan), Ellen W. L' Argent (Mrs. 
Richard Hopkins), Maggie Gregory (Mrs. Joseph 
Wetherell), Mary Patterson (Mrs. William H. Hack- 
ett), Loutora Moeller, Letitia Jarboe (Mrs. Elisha S. 
Weedman), Sallie Wheatley, Sallie Whitmarsh, Maggie 
Gregg, Maggie Wilson, Alice Graham, Jennie Brown, 
Bessie Wales, Ruhamah Wales, Susanna Butler, Joshua 
H. Groves, Samuel T. Whitmarsh, Charles H. Deen, 
James J. Wheeler, John Stephens, Daniel Stanley, 
Smith McAllister, John Lasenby, Israel L. Whitehead, 
Isaac W. Lyons, Heber J. May, Hiram Sanders, James 
S. Frakes and John S. Frakes. The sessions were 
esteemed of such value that the teachers expressed 
their interest and gratification by resolving to hold 
another institute the next year. 

Just a fortnight after the original institute met, the 
cornerstone was laid for a new public school building 
in Cannelton, the formal exercises taking place Sep- 
tember 10, 1867. All the fraternal orders and local 
benevolent societies turned out in procession to the 
block lying between Taylor, Congress, Sixth and Bry 
streets, which the town corporation had purchased for 
school purposes, and the Masonic ceremonial was con- 
ducted in the presence of many spectators, who 
listened also to addresses from Hamilton Smith, Sr., 
and Charles H. Mason. 

The edifice, a substantial and commodious two-story 
brick, still in use, with some interior remodelling, was 
an excellent structure for its day, reflecting much 
credit upon the board of trustees who erected it, Alfred 
Vaughan, Roan Clark and Joseph F. Sulzer. In the 
face of much opposition these virtually assumed pay- 
ment of the bond issue, which amounted to only $9,800 
bearing six per cent, interest, and in a little over five 
years (April, 1873) the last was paid off, when the 
three trustees resigned from office, giving place to 
others. 

The Rev. Warren N. Dunham (deacon in charge of 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 287 

St. Luke's Church at the time) was the first superin- 
tendent in tlie new building for the school year of 
1868-69, and the teachers employed under him were 
Christian H. Dick, Misses Ruhamah Wales, Augusta 
Kolb (Mrs. Maurice J. McGrath), Nancy Vaughan 
(Mrs. Abbot) and Maggie Hollerbach (Mrs. Weth- 
er ell) . 

The teachers' institute of 1868, from September 7 
to 11, inclusive, was the first held in the new school- 
house, and its officers were Heber J. May, president; 
Mary H. Batson (Mrs. Royal), secretary; John T. Pat- 
rick, assistant secretary. Professor D. Eckley Hunter 
gave instruction in normal methods, in which he was 
one of Indiana's foremost pioneers. Exercises in the 
major branches of common school were conducted with 
much profit. Observant critics who had been ap- 
pointed, indicated such omissions or commissions as 
were thought noteworthy and a question-box supplied 
its amusement together with a degree of benefit. 

Up to this time each county still had its school ex- 
aminer, and the last but one in Perry County holding 
such a position, between 1868 and 1871, was Heber J. 
May, who had been a successful teacher and later won 
distinction for himself in the profession of the law. 

Heber J. May was the son of David May, and was 
bom November 28, 1846, in Pike County, whence his 
parents moved about 1852 to Perry County, making it 
a home thereafter. His education was in the common 
schools, supplemented by some years of advanced 
training in a select private school conducted in Cannel- 
ton by the Rev. William Louis Githens, rector of St. 
Luke's Church, a man of strong and admirable char- 
acter, whose personal influence upon the young people 
showed itself in many marked instances. 

While still teaching school himself, Heber J. May 
next studied law, reading in the office of Judge Charles 
H. Mason, and soon after attaining his majority passed 
with high credit the required examination admitting 
him as a qualified practitioner before the bar. For 



288 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

two years he practiced law in Evansville, but in 1873 
he returned to Perry County where he purchased the 
first Enghsh newspaper in Tell City, the Commercial, 
an eight-column weekly journal. 

It had been founded May 3, 1873, as an independent 
sheet, but was changed to Democratic on passing into 
May's hands six months later. He continued to own 
and edit it until January 1, 1876, when he sold the 
outfit to W. P. Knight, who shortly removed the plant 
to Union City, Indiana, Mr. May resuming his law 
practice in Cannelton. The death of his first wife 
(Margaret Mayhall, of Hancock County, Kentucky) 
left him a widower for several years, with one daugh- 
ter, and in 1880 he was again married to Gertrude 
(Huntington) Bunce, daughter of the late Judge Hunt- 
ington, of "Mistletoe Lodge." 

In 1882 he was elected Joint Senator from Perry 
and Spencer Counties and in 1885 his services as an 
active Democrat were given due recognition by Presi- 
dent Cleveland, who appointed him Assistant Attor- 
ney-General to Augustus H. Garland, of Arkansas, 
then in the cabinet. From the time of his removal to 
Washington he made the District of Columbia his 
home for the remainder of his life. When the Re- 
publicans came back into power in 1889, he formed a 
law partnership v/ith Judge Garland, lasting until the 
latter's death, and was a trusted counsellor for several 
of the foreign legations. 

Death came to him January 22, 1915, with distress- 
ing suddenness, and he passed away in the arms of 
his devoted wife, v/ho still resides at the capital with 
their only surviving son, who is a journalist there. 

Theodore Courcier, of Leopold, a son of John Cour- 
cier, who had fought in the War of 1812, became the 
last school examiner, in June 1871, serving under that 
title until June, 1873, when, by a new law, the office 
was changed to County Superintendent of Schools. 
He assumed the added responsibilities and carried on 
its duties until 1879, when he was followed by Israel 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 289 

L. Whitehead, whose successors have been Francis J. 
George, Logan Esarey, Harmon S. Moseby and Lee B. 
Mullen, the present incumbent. 

In earlier years the teachers' institutes were held at 
various points in the county, following the same plan 
as was then customary with the monthly examina- 
tions for teachers' license. Superintendent George, 
however, inaugurated a system of alternation between 
Cannelton in the "odd" and Tell City in the "even" 
years, which has not been departed from, although the 
law now permits no examinations to be held elsewhere 
than at the county-seat, where the superintendent has 
his office in the court house, along with the auditor, 
treasurer, clerk, recorder and sheriff. 

The press of Perry County, whose beginning dates 
from April 28, 1849, when Charles H. Mason founded 
the Cannelton Economist, was for twenty years lim- 
ited to two papers, one in each of the principal towns, 
and the Tell City Anzeiger being printed in German, 
there was practically but one county journal. 

The Economist may be characterized as a periodical 
of superior literary tone, its editorials from the pen 
of Judge Mason being widely copied, while its zeal for 
home institutions was its strongest local feature. 
Little news that would pass as such today appeared 
in its columns, though its files afford illuminating 
glimpses of contemporaneous thought. Plate matter 
was then unknown. Each country editor had to com- 
pile his own selections, and by such should the merit 
of the Economist be estimated. 

William H. Mason became an associate proprietor 
and editor in August, 1850, and the brothers continued 
to issue the paper until November 15, 1851. Louis 
Lunsford Burke and J. M. Beatty began issuing the 
Express from the same office December 6, 1851, but 
it ran through only four issues. After two months, 
or March 27, 1852, it reappeared as the Indiana Week- 
ly Express, pubHshed by J. M. Beatty and J. B. Archer. 
November 20, 1852, Beatty sold out to Archer, who 

(10) 



290 HISTORY OF PERRY COtTNTY 

continued alone until April 19, 1853, retiring then with 
a loss of several hundred dollars. 

January 28, 1854, J. M. Beatty re-entered journal- 
ism, using the original outfit of the Economist but 
printing Number 1, Volume 1, of the Cannelton Re- 
porter, which he published until January 13, 1855, 
when he sold out to J. B. Archer. All these papers in 
turn had been politically independent, but Archer 
changed both name and politics, printing as the Can- 
nelton Mercury a Democratic sheet whose life lasted 
through seven short weeks. Beatty then came back 
for the last time, issuing, April 21, 1855, Number 1, 
Volume 2, of the Reporter, resuming independent pol- 
itics with the old name. 

Joseph M. Prior purchased the paper February 23, 
1856, changing its name with the issue of May 24 to 
Independent Republican and again, on August 16, to 
Republican Banner, which lasted until its suspension, 
September 13. 

George G. Leming and Henry Koetter soon pur- 
chased the outfit, and November 8, 1856, saw the name 
Reporter restored to the head where it remained for 
the next twenty years, politics becoming Democratic 
under the new proprietors. Jacob B. Maynard bought 
out Koetter March 14, 1857, and January 30, 1858, 
took over Leming's interest also. From this time the 
paper regained among Indiana periodicals the status 
which it had never held since Charles H. Mason pre- 
sided over its columns. Colonel Maynard was a writer 
of striking force and brilliancy, belonging to what is 
now termed the "Old School" of journalism whereof 
Henry Watterson — the beloved "Marse Henry," last 
and most distinguished of his type — is now (1915) the 
only living representative. 

December 25, 1858, the paper went back into the 
hands of George G. Leming and James M. Moffett, who 
sold out very soon to the Wade brothers, John C. Wade 
acting as editor. Colonel Maynard took the paper once 
more, January 7, 1860, and his editorials during the 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 291 

breathless Lincoln campaign, the period of secession, 
and the first months of the War between the States, 
were copied throughout the Union, giving the Cannel- 
ton Reporter a prominence such as few country news- 
papers attain. 

Ability so pronounced wins in every case personal 
recognition for itself, so that Maynard was offered a 
position on Indiana's leading Democratic newspaper, 
the Indianapolis Sentinel. He had sold a half-interest 
in the Reporter to W. L. Moffett, December 6, 1881, 
and December 5, 1863, sold his remaining share to 
Henry Northup Wales, who became editor. 

Wales bought out Moffett April 2, 1864, but October 
1 sold out to Joseph W. Snow, who had been for some 
years a teacher in Cannelton and Rome. He was a 
man of classic scholarship, as the columns of his paper 
plainly attest, nor v/as there any falling off in taste or 
abihty when he sold out, April 12, 1866, to Thomas 
James de la Hunt, a fellow-graduate from the sam.e 
college, Genesee (now Syracuse University). Owner- 
ship of the Reporter was continued by Mrs. de la Hunt 
for a time following her husband's death, with Charles 
H. Mason in the editorial chair as a Republican, but in 
the summer of 1876 the establishment was sold to 
Henderson Marcus Huff and Hiram Osborne Brazee. 

June 1, 1870, the Cannelton Enquirer had been es- 
tablished by a stock company whose control soon 
passed to Edwin R. Hatfield, Sydney B. Hatfield and 
Elisha English Drumb, the last two being joint ed- 
itors of the paper, which was a Democratic sheet and 
founded for purposes of county politics, wherewith all 
its owners were actively connected. 

William N. Underwood, a native of Delaware Coun- 
ty, New York, came in September, 1873, from Topeka, 
Kansas, to Cannelton, purchasing a one-third interest 
in the Enquirer and becoming its publisher. He was 
a graduate of New Berlin (New York) Academy, and 
had learned the printer's trade in the state of his 
birth, working three years in the Chenango Union 



292 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

office. For a year he lived in Wisconsin, as pressman 
for the Janesville Democrat, but at the age of twenty 
enlisted in October, 1861, in the Sixteenth New York 
Heavy Artillery, serving until mustered out, August, 
1865. After the war, he located in Carlinville, Illinois, 
marrying Etta Wargensted there, but went to Topeka, 
where he was foreman of the State Record until com- 
ing to Cannelton. 

Drumb and Edwin R. Hatfield retired from the paper 
in June, 1874, and just two years later Underwood 
purchased the share of Sydney B. Hatfield. William 
E. Knights, a Canneltonian, who had been pubhshing 
the Grandview Monitor, became associated with Un- 
derwood in 1877, the two buying the Reporter from 
Huff and Brazee and consolidating both papers June 
21, 1877, under the title Cannelton Enquirer and Re- 
porter. 

Knights remained as editor only until January 31, 
1878, resuming then his work in Grandview, while the 
Cannelton office passed into the control of Underwood. 
On October 15, 1887, the name Reporter was dropped 
from the headline, but the sheet remained Democratic 
until purchased, October 12, 1892, by Thomas E. Hus- 
ton and Charles T. Miller, who changed its politics 
back to the Republican faith, Huston selling out his 
interest December, 1899, to Miller. 

For several months in 1878 a Republican weekly, the 
Cannelton Advance, was published by John F, Waldo, 
a young journalist from Vevay, but proved an untime- 
ly venture. The presidential campaign of 1880 saw 
two other Republican papers established in Cannelton, 
the Journal, of which John E. Daum was proprietor, 
with William Clark as associate editor, and the News, 
pubhshed by Frederick V. Rounds and William A. Sil- 
verthorn. Although both were good country sheets, 
full of local items, their career was not much more 
than two years in duration. Expenses were heavy, 
and notwithstanding both state and national victories 
for the Republicans, the party had but a small share 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 293 

of patronage in Perry County printing which could be 
disbursed toward their own press. 

Similar conditions six years later determined the 
fate of the Cannelton Gazette, a weekly founded dur- 
ing the summer of 1886, as a feature of the campaign 
looking toward the election of Benjamin Harrison to 
the United States Senate. Louis L. Burke, for twenty 
years resident in the District of Columbia, returned to 
Perry County, and established the paper which lasted 
less than a year, as the Republican gains were not 
sufficient to overcome Democratic control of local poli- 
tics. Burke removed his plant to Brookville, where 
for several years he published the American with fair 
success. 



CHAPTER XXPCIII. 
FIRST COUNTY FAIRS. 

The earliest successful effort toward holding a 
county fair in Perry County was a three days' exhibit 
October 13, 14 and 15, 1867, in Tell City, when a cred- 
itable display of farm produce, grain, vegetables, fruit, 
flowers, jellies, preserves, needlework, manufactured 
and mechanical products, and other miscellaneous ar- 
ticles was assembled. The attempt was not repeated 
the following year, however, and it was not until 1875 
that another organization was effected under the style 
of "Perry County Exposition." Zalmon Tousey, pres- 
ident; George F. Bott, secretary; August Menninger, 
treasurer; and James M. Combs, superintendent; were 
the officers. 

A tract of land was secured about midway between 
Cannelton and Tell City, on the old "high water" hill 
road leading from Seventh Street in the former town 
into Tell Street in the latter. Here a half-mile track 
was laid out, and the usual grand-stand, band pavilion, 
floral hall, stalls, sheds, rest and refreshment houses 
necessary for v/ell-equipped fair grounds v/ere built. 
A liberal premium list was issued, with prizes, sweep- 
stakes, etc., in all departments and for some few years 
annual fairs were held, drawing large crowds from 
both Southern Indiana and neighbouring Kentucky. 

At Rome, February 12, 1870, the Perry County 
Agricultural and Mechanical Society was organized, 
adopting constitution and by-lav/s, and electing as per- 
manent officers, James Hardin, president ; Hiram Carr 
and James T. Bean, vice-presidents; Emile Longue- 
mare, secretary; Adam Ackarman, treasurer. Fort- 
nightly meetings were held, at which were discussed 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 295 

such topics as "Oat Culture," "The Crop," "Use of 
Manures," "Preservation of Meat from Vermin," 
"Onion Growing," and "Does the Moon Affect the Po- 
tato Crop?" Seeds and Hterature from the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture were received and distributed 
among the members, and the society was in its way 
a forerunner of the Farmers' Institutes which came 
into existence about twenty years later, and among 
whose earliest active workers was James J. Wheeler, 
now a resident of Chicago but long identified with 
Perry County. 

At a very early meeting of the A. and M. Society 
it was suggested that a fair be held at Rome during 
the fall of 1870, but the plan failed to materialize, as 
did also an attempt to reorganize the society upon the 
basis of a stock company. Regular meetings were con- 
tinued, nevertheless, until the autumn of 1871, the 
membership then numbering about thirty residents of 
Tobin Township in the vicinity of Rome, and after 
prolonged deliberation it was determined to hold a fair 
in the fall of 1872, utilizing for the purpose the Acad- 
emy grounds and buildings. 

In exhibits, attendance and interest the first fair 
was so successful that it was repeated in 1873, again 
using the Academy. Such was the increase along all 
lines that early in 1874 it was decided by the associa- 
tion to secure permanent quarters. Three acres of 
level land, lying one mile west of the village, were pur- 
chased of Andrew Ackarman, for $300 and during the 
summer were fenced in, a show ring laid off, a well 
dug seventy-five feet deep, and suitable buildings con- 
structed, at a total outlay of $1,500. 

James Hardin continued as president until 1876, 
and was then succeeded by John Tipton Connor, but 
again took the ofl^ice in 1880. Hiram Carr Ackarman, 
in 1882 ; James Carey, in 1883 ; and A. T. Wheeler, in 
1884; were the next officials in succession, by which 
time the interest of the county at large had seriously 
languished, and the association had begun to decline. 



296 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

High praise, however, is due the town and neighbour- 
hood of Rome for their efforts in founding and main- 
taining so long as they did an organization which many- 
Indiana counties of greater wealth and superior agri- 
cultural conditions had failed to establish successfully. 

The fruit displayed was of notable excellence in 
the earlier years, John C. Shoemaker, the authority 
on pomology, making several annual trips from Indi- 
anapolis back to his old home to serve as one of the 
judges, and pronouncing Perry County apples unsur- 
passed by any exhibited at the State fairs. His own 
orchards (now "Sunnycrest") were then deteriorating, 
but from the Polk and Winchel nurseries near Tobins- 
port came specimen fruit which would have won prizes 
in any competition. 

Nor was the I'resh fruit alone of remarkable per- 
fection. The notable housewives of Rome brought 

" candied apple, quince, and plums, and gourd. 

With jellies soother than the creamy curd. 
And lucent syrops, tinct with cinnamon," 
whose delicacy could not be excelled, while needlework 
was shown of a fineness which only the patient 
stitchery of Belgian convents might equal. With the 
flagging of enthusiasm, however, it came to be a good- 
humoured local jest that some of the displays were 
kept in pantry, cellar or linen-press from year to 
year, and annually brought forth like rare works of 
art, to win new ribbons and further cash prizes. 

About 1888 strenuous exertions were made to re- 
vive the old-time attractiveness of the fair, and fif- 
teen additional acres were leased, so that a half-mile 
race track could be laid out. Some handsome purses 
were offered in the hope of inducing horsemen to bring 
their trotting strings, but Rome was of such incon- 
venient access that men of the turf passed it by for 
points having railway connection, and only two more 
fairs were held. 

In 1894 the propertj^ was sold for $350 to Nicholas 
N. Pontrich. A comfortable residence replaced the 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 297 

stalls, floral hall was changed into a barn, corn-furrows 
were traced across the race-track, and only the deep 
well remains as a relic of "the grandeur that was 
Rome." 

For a number of years after the discontinuance of 
the short-lived Orleans Bank of Cannelton, Perry 
County was without any regular banking facilities, but 
in 1872 John S. Whitten came from Leavenworth to 
Tell City and, in co-operation with Frederick Steiner, 
founded the Tell City Bank as a private institution, 
with a capital of $30,000. Whitten was cashier and 
manager, Steiner being wharfmaster and otherwise 
occupied at the time. 

After one year the concern was turned over to a 
partnership of twelve stockholders with a capital of 
$12,000, all of which could then be profitably handled. 
Charles Steinauer, of Tell City, was president, and Ga- 
briel Schmuck, of Cannelton, cashier; the other shares 
being held by Peter Meier and Christian Rauscher, of 
Cannelton; Louis Martin, of Fulda; Amand Eble, J. 
Wielman and John Richardt, of Troy; Gustave Huth- 
steiner, Ferdinand Becker, August Menninger and 
Michael Bettinger, of Tell City. 

In November, 1874, it was changed to the Tell City 
National Bank, with Charles Steinauer, president; 
Gustave Huthsteiner, cashier, and a capital of $50,000, 
but in February, 1878, became a private institution 
again. Later reorganized as a state bank, it finally 
became a national bank once more, which it still re- 
mains, having for its cashier (1915) Walter F. Huth- 
steiner, a son of Gustave Huthsteiner. 

While Gabriel Schmuck was not for long connected 
with the Tell City Bank, the services which he ren- 
dered the infant concern were of incalculable value, as 
he brought it safely through he financial panic of 1873, 
when it shared the fatal danger threatening other or- 
ganizations of its kind all over the Union, and his 
sound judgment steered the craft wisely in its period 
of critical storm. 



298 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Gabriel Schmuck was born June 13, 1833, in Sobern- 
heim, Rhenish, Prussia, and was brought to America 
by his parents, Adam and Elisabetha (Klein) Schmuck, 
in the wave of emigration which left the Fatherland 
during 1848. Their first stop of two years, was in 
Pittsburg, but in June, 1850, they settled for perma- 
nent residence in Cannelton, where the fourth genera- 
tion of the name in Indiana is now represented. The 
family was large and — like most of the immigrants — 
without fortune, so the discipline of early life served 
to fix habits of industry and usefulness upon the six 
sons, Adam, Jr., Gabriel, Peter, Anton, Charles and 
Frederick, all of whom grew to maturity as men of 
strong characteristics. 

Gabriel Schmuck's education was begun in the 
schools of his native town and his actual time in the 
school-room was not long, though he devoted many 
hours in his youth to outside study and by personal 
application attained versatile culture. When still in 
his 'teens he yielded to that wanderlust which pos- 
sesses many vigourous temperaments, and left Cannel- 
ton to seek new fields in the South and West. Having 
to earn his own money as he went, he worked tempo- 
rarily in many states, thus adding to his experience 
and increasing the resources upon which the require- 
ments of public station would later draw. No false 
pride prevented him from engaging in any legitimate 
kind of honest labour, and his active mentality soon 
lifted him into positions of responsibility. 

Satisfied with a few years of this roving career, 
he returned home, finding Cannelton increased in popu- 
lation and Tell City installed as a new factor in Perry 
County's development. His accurate knowledge of the 
German language caused him to be much in demand 
as an interpreter for legal transactions of many kinds, 
and a step into politics was an easy transition. 

In 1859 he was elected Recorder and near the close 
of his four years' term was chosen Clerk of the Cir- 
cuit Court, holding this office for six years, or until 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 299 

March 10, 1872. Six months later he was elected Rep- 
resentative for the Legislature in 1873, an important 
session wherein he was connected with measures of 
state-wide bearing and brought himself into notice all 
over Indiana. As a direct result he was nominated by 
the Democrats in 1876 for Clerk of the Supreme Court 
of Indiana, and was elected with the rest of a ticket 
which his name and popularity materially strength- 
ened. 

Following this election he removed to Indianapolis 
with his wife, Mary F. Sanders-Talbot (an adopted 
daughter of Dow Talbot, of Cannelton) , whom he had 
married December 24, 1861. With their children, they 
made the capital city their home thereafter, until they 
left Indiana for Kansas in the 'nineties, settling in 
Galena, where extensive mining properties demanded 
supervision. 

The Centennial anniversary of American Inde- 
pendence, July 4, 1876, was universally commemorated 
all over Perry County with the same spontaneous en- 
thusiasm which marked its observance throughout the 
Union. 

Cannelton's demonstration was in the highest de- 
gree creditable to the intelligent patriotism and public 
spirit of her citizens, being ushered in at earliest day- 
break by the roar of artillery and the ringing of every 
bell in town. At eight o'clock a parade was formed 
at the corner of Washington and Fourth Street, and 
headed by the Cannelton Cornet Band, marched 
through the principal streets, among buildings every- 
where profusely decorated with the national colours 
and a variety of emblematic devices. Besides all the 
different fraternal orders and societies in line, an am- 
ateur military company, organized and drilled for the 
occasion by Will N. Underwood, impersonated 

" the old-time Continentals 



In their ragged regimentals." 
And on a canopied float sat the Goddess of Liberty, 



300 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

appropriately garbed and gracefully represented by 
Miss Kate May, with thirteen other young ladies 
dressed in white, impersonating the Original Colonies. 

These young women sang national airl as they 
drove along, and after reaching the beech grove on the 
hill west of Cliff Cemetery, where the formal exercises 
took place, were joined by additional singers, both male 
and female, who again rendered "The Star-Spangled 
Banner," and other patriotic melodies. 

The Declaration of Independence was read aloud, 
and John B. Handy, of Boonville, delivered the princi- 
pal oration. The Rev. Christian Kirschman, pastor of 
St. John's Evangelical Church, gave an address in Ger- 
man, and the remainder of the day was spent in 
dancing, games, music and refreshments. A display 
of fireworks closed the celebration, with another public 
dance on a platform built for the occasion in "Hutch- 
ings Square," between Washington, Adams, Sixth and 
Hutchings Streets. 

The boom of cannon also woke the echoes at 
dawn in Tell City, where the Stars and Stripes were 
everywhere unfurled, and a procession said to be the 
finest in Perry County, marched through Eighth 
(Main) and other streets, proceeding lastly to Camp 
Sherman where a programme of regulation character 
was carried out. Christian Uebelmesser read the 
Declaration, and Albert Bettinger, of Cincinnati, spoke 
eloquently in German, followed by a brief talk from 
Judge Handy. Dancing was continued all day, and at 
night both Turner and Union halls were thrown open 
for large balls. 

Troy also sustained her olden spirit of patriotism, 
and public demonstrations drew crowds to Rome, 
Derby (famed for balls sometimes lasting for two days 
or more in O'Neill's Hall), and Leopold. In Anderson 
Valley six Sunday Schools united in a joint celebration, 
serving a basket dinner to over seven hundred persons 
besides singing patriotic songs and listening to a Cen- 
tennial address delivered by Roan Clark, of Cannelton. 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 301 



An ancestral relic dating back to 



-good old Colony days 



When we lived under the King," 

exhibited with pride in Cannelton during this Centen- 
nial period, was a veritable powder-horn, owned by 
Mrs. Peter M. Hackett (Roselle Thompson), grand- 
daughter of its original possessor. 

It was twenty inches long, by three-and-a-half at 
the base, bearing the hand-cut inscription : 
"June 4, 1768. EBENEZER THOMPSON, his Horn." 
The ox which bore the horn had been raised by 
Ebenezer Thompson, one of the earliest settlers of 
Maine, where he had large possessions and where he 
died at the advanced age of over one hundred years. 
His wife's name was Somerset, belonging to the family 
for whom Somerset County, Maine, was named, and as 
she was the first white female child born within its 
limits an entire township of land was bestowed upon 
her by the authorities. 

After its first military use in the American Revo- 
lution, the powder-horn saw service in the Second War 
with England, and again in the Mexican War. No 
doubt it would have served once more, during the War 
Between the States, save for the changes and improve- 
ments in soldierly accoutrements made by 1861 since 
its first owner slung it across his shoulder and sallied 
forth to meet the British regulars. 

Nor was the Centennial sentiment of pageantry 
and symbolism wholly expended on the national anni- 
versary. The intensely exciting Hayes-Tilden presi- 
dential campaign was marked by frequent demonstra- 
tions in behalf of both political parties. Glee-clubs 
flourished, torch-light processions helped to kindle en- 
thusiasm, spell-binding eloquence was poured out lav- 
ishly all over Indiana — then an "October state" — as 
the crucial battle-ground. 

One parade held in Cannelton, Saturday, September 
16, 1876, is vividly described by one of those who fig- 



302 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

ured in it, and the circumstance that it preceded a 
Hayes and Wheeler pole-raising and a speech by Cur- 
ran A. De Bruler, Republican candidate for Congress, 
is purely a subordinate detail after the lapse of two- 
score years. 

Thirty-eight little girls garbed in white were be- 
decked with sashes of red and blue, bearing the names 
of the States then in the Union. In a low and roomy 
basket-phaeton rode the Goddess of Liberty, Miss 
Margaret Gray (Mrs. Charles Oswald), dressed in 
white, with supporters, respectively gowned in red and 
blue, representing Justice — Miss Emma Moore (Mrs. 
Charles W. Proctor) — and Truth — Miss Lizzie May 
(Mrs. John Gordon, later Mrs. Henry Dickman, Sr.). 

Most striking of all was the float whereon sat the 
"Thirteen Original Colonies" impersonated by young 
women in elaborately correct costumes of the Colonial 
period. Some of the gowns worn were genuine family 
heirlooms, and while the personality of ail the partici- 
pants could not be recalled in 1915 by the narrator — 
herself by far the youngest and smallest of the group, 
hence appropriately representing Rhode Island — 
among them were the names of Emma Burke (Mrs. A. 
Kinney Hall), Sallie Lees (Mrs. Clinton C. Worrall), 
Jessie Lees (Mrs. William Cleaves Conv/ay), Annie 
Huckeby (Mrs. John Allen Smart), Ida Moeller (Mrs. 
George W. Hufnagel), Rose Moore (Mrs. Charles H. 
Rose), Bessie Payne (Mrs. Samuel Brazee), and LilHe 
Richards (Mrs. George Minto). 



CHAPTER XX|XIV. 

FROM PLANK ROAD TO RAILWAY. 

A FACTOR of verily inestimable value was the Ohio 
River in Perry County's development for more than 
half a century, as no definite system of improved high- 
ways within the borders of the commonwealth was 
even planned until four years after Indiana's admission 
to statehood. 

The "National Road," first projected in 1802 from 
Washington to Wheeling, was designed to stretch clear 
across Ohio, when admitted as a state, in order that 
emigrants might readily reach the government lands 
farther west, and from the proceeds of all public lands 
sold in Ohio, five per cent, was set aside as a building 
fund for this great thoroughfare. As a piece of early 
American engineering its magnitude is scarcely real- 
ized in this Twentieth Century, but it compares not 
unfavourably with the famous Roman roads of an- 
tiquity, and in the center of its eighty-foot "right of 
way" ten inches of crushed stone macadamized a forty- 
foot track on which two six-horse coaches could safely 
pass, or race abreast, as frequently occurred. Con- 
gress, however, was dilatory in completing the road 
beyond Ohio and in 1839, only a few years after it was 
built to Indianapolis, abandoned it to the state of 
Indiana. 

By an act of Legislature in 1820 no less than twen- 
ty-six "State roads" were planned; and the importance 
of making connection with the river was plainly felt, 
as many of these routes lay in Southern Indiana, 
though Perry County's recognition did not come until 
1829, when an act was passed to locate a state road 
from Troy to Washington. 



304 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

James Carnahan, of Daviess County, Thomas Pride, 
of Pike County, and Jared Bowling, of Dubois County, 
were named commissioners to view, locate and mark 
the route chosen, being instructed to meet the first 
Monday in May (3d) , 1830, at Troy, to be sworn in and 
begin their labours. Thirty feet was fixed as the width 
for the road, ordered to cross White River at Casee's 
Ferry, and the new highway was considered no less 
important to the pioneers than a railroad at the pres- 
ent time. Even yet a certain Daviess County thorough- 
fare leading southeastward from the city of Washing- 
ton is sometimes designated as "the old Troy road." 

Besides the three per cent, fund, which was a dona- 
tion from the general government out of the sale of 
public lands, and amounted in some years (1821) to an 
appropriation of $100,000, there was a road tax on real 
estate in general, amounting to one-half the amount of 
state tax. Town lots were assessed an amount equal 
to one-half the county tax, while non-resident owners 
were charged with an amount equalling one-half the 
state tax plus one-half the county tax. This was to 
offset their escape from having to work the roads in 
person, as all other able-bodied male inhabitants be- 
tween the ages of twenty-one and fifty with the excep- 
tion of clergymen and some few others, were formally 
warned out for manual labour on the public roads two 
days in each year. 

Under this state law the first roads were cut 
through the forests of Perry County, and with the nor- 
mal human tendency toward progression along the line 
of least resistance, the public highways ambled hither 
and yon wherever some previous beginning had been 
made by a pioneer anxious to reach a spring, a mill, 
a store, a smithy, a school, a church or a burying 
ground. It was a physical impossibility among the 
hills and valleys of rock-ribbed Perry to follow the 
rectangular section lines, as was done in more level 
counties such as Spencer, and in many instances mere 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 305 

by-ways and local footpaths formed the groundwork 
and location for permanent county roads yet in use. 

Streams had to be forded or crossed by crude fer- 
ries such as that over Anderson River, where Lincoln 
worked as a hired hand. Travel was infrequent, and 
as days sometimes went by without a passenger to 
cross, the ferryman's duties were neither arduous nor 
confining and he could work at his other tasks until 
summoned by the solitary horseman or weary pedes- 
trian. In some instances a bell, as now, gave the sig- 
nal, but oftener it was the old primitive call as kept 
up in England : 

"Ohoi, and oho, ye! It's I'm for the ferry!" 

Bridge building was long retarded by the ludicrous 
action of the Fourth General Assembly at Corydon, 
January 17, 1820, which passed a combination bill 
under which almost every creek large enough to float a 
shallow pirogue or canoe was gravely declared "a nav- 
igable waterway," and its obstruction by mill-dams or 
bridges specifically prohibited. 

Absurdly though it now reads, on page 59 of the 
Laws of Indiana for 1820, to find Anderson River from 
its mouth (at Troy), to the Hurricane fork (near St. 
Meinrad) ; Poison Creek, to Cummings' mill; and Oil 
Creek, to Aaron Cunningham's mill; lawfully declared 
"Navigable streams," along with waterways both 
greater and less, it must be remembered, out of respect 
for the practical common sense of our early law- 
makers, that such legislation was based upon the Or- 
dinance of 1787. This declared the navigable waters 
leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence and the 
carrying places between the same to be "common high- 
ways, and forever^ free, as well to the inhabitants of 
said (Northwest) territory as to the citizens of the 
United States and those of any other State that may 
be admitted into the Confederacy, without any tax, 
impost or duty therefor." In such case "navigable" 
can only be interpreted as referring to the bateaux 
then alone used for navigation, so the legislators of 

(2(t) 



306 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

four-year old Indiana had some official precedent for 
an action that would todaj' be regarded as a freak of 
questionable sanity. 

The first movement toward improved roads in 
Perry County was in 1850, when the Cannelton, Troy 
and Jasper Plank Road Company was incorporated, the 
three towns subscribing respectively $8,000, $6,000 
and $14,000 in stock. Alexander McGregor, a civil 
engineer, who had come from Newport, Rhode Island, 
to superintendent the erection of the Indiana Cotton 
Mills, was the first president ; Charles H. Mason, secre- 
tary ; and Frederick Boyd, treasurer. The shares were 
to be paid in periodical installments of $4, whenever 
called for by the progress of building, and several as- 
sessments appear to have been made. Timber of the 
finest character then sold at a figure almost nominal, 
when bought at all, as the wasteful extravagance in 
forest destruction recklessly cut down trees that would 
now be reckoned of priceless value. It was, therefore 
both cheap and easy to cover the road with heavy 
narrow oak planks which for several years afforded ex- 
cellent driving surface. 

The route from Cannelton was a northwesterly con- 
tinuation of Front Street, passing the John Mason 
homestead, one of the first brick dwellings in the town 
and then still occupied by its owner and builder, 
although he had just sold forty-five acres of land 
adjoining to a German nobleman. Baron Bernard 
Herzeele, what was considered a high price, $400 an 
acre. Herzeele Street, in the addition surveyed, is the 
only memorial which the titled foreigner left behind 
him in Cannelton, and Mason Street, running parallel 
one block south, was a courtesy shown the original 
landholder. 

The Mason residence was totally destroyed June 
22, 1864, by a fire discovered while the funeral services 
of Mrs. Mason (Sarah Elkins Webb) were taking 
place, the remains having to be hastily removed from 
the blazing edifice. Owing to a dry season the flames 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 307 

spread so rapidly that little could be saved from the 
home in spite of the large crowd present. 

Leading on past "Elm Park," the Prancis Y. Car- 
lile home, the road crossed Dozier Creek, then closely 
skirted Brier Hill through the mining hamlet known 
under the name of Fulton, and an addition once platted 
as Lower Cannelton, but left toward the river "Mul- 
berry Park," the residence of Henry P. Brazee, Sr., 
familiarly known as "Squire" Brazee. 

In connection with this handful of miners' cabins 
by the roadside it is well to explain definitely how the 
name of so distinguished an individual as Robert Ful- 
ton became associated with so humble a settlement. 
It adds no little interest to the history of Perry County 
that such a man as he, whose sagacity in matters of 
national concern was equalled only by his mechanical 
skill, should have directed his attention to this point. 

Under date of Saturday, May 26, 1849, the fifth 
issue of the Cannelton Economist contains editorial 
matter worthy of copious quotation, because it may be 
taken as reliable authority on the question whether 
Robert Fulton himself was ever actually iin Perry 
County. The article reads: 

"For the facts which we lay before our readers we 
are chiefly indebted to the Case of Fulton's Heirs vs. 
Roosevelt, reported in 5 Johnson's Chancery Reports, 
174. 

"It seems that Robert Fulton on the 15th day of 
September, 1813, entered into an agreement with 
Nicholas J. Roosevelt to purchase a certain tract of 
land lying upon the Ohio. The agreement recited that 
the latter had discovered a coal mine on the bank of 
the Ohio, in the Indian Territory, some distance above 
Anderson's creek, at which mine the steamboat, on 
her first descent, took in coal for her fuel ; that the coal 
mine was embraced by certain land particularly de- 
scribed &c., and for which Fulton covenanted to pay 
the sum of $4,400, and also the sum of $1,000, yearly 
in quarterly payments, for the term of twenty years. 



308 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

The payment of this annuity, however, was con- 
ditional; for in case Fulton, after faithfully and scien- 
tifically working the mine, should find the same in- 
capable of producing twelve thousand chaldrons of 
coal, equal to 432,000 bushels, then the annuity was to 
cease. 

"February 24, 1815, Fulton died, and soon after, his 
representatives were sued at law by Roosevelt, upon 
the covenant for the payment of the annuity. It was 
alleged, on the part of Fulton's heirs, that the agree- 
ment was entered into by Fulton 'solely from the rep- 
resentations of Roosevelt, which were false and decep- 
tive.' The weight of testimony adduced at trial sup- 
ported this allegation, and Roosevelt was perpetually 
enjoined from suing or prosecuting any suit pending 
at law, for the recovery of the annuity, or any part 
thereof." 

From this report it is a clearly natural inference 
that Robert Fulton had never seen the 1,040 acres 
which he purchased from Roosevelt, or he would have 
known for himself what his heirs established in the 
trial, that the mine had been opened "on or near the 
line of the river ; or rather, in the bed of the river, and 
consequently subject to frequent inundation." 

In the Louisville Journal of March 13, 1850, an ar- 
ticle appeared suggesting that a monument should be 
erected to Fulton's memory, somewhere upon the tract 
of land which he had owned. Its tone indicated that 
some preliminary steps were already under way, and 
on March 14, in Troy, a meeting was held, with Major 
Taylor Basye in the chair and John P. Dunn, secretary, 
which resulted in organizing "The Fulton Monumental 
Association of Troy, Indiana," with constitution and 
by-laws. 

A called meeting of Indiana and Kentucky citizens 
was held May 18th in Louisville, and the "Fulton Mon- 
ument Association" was formed, with a truly impres- 
sive board of officers and directors: President, Elisha 
M. Huntington, of Cannelton ; vice-presidents, the Gov- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 309 

ernors of Indiana and Kentucky ex officio; the presi- 
dents of the Mechanics' Association, Boston, and the 
Frankhn Institute, Philadelphia, ex officio; and Jacob 
Burnet, of Cincinnati; secretary. Dr. T. S. Bell, of 
Louisville; directors, Robert Dale Owen, John Law, 
James Boyd, Henry L. Ellsworth, of Indiana ; James C. 
Hall, Paul Anderson, Jacob Strader, Joseph Pierce, of 
Ohio ; George D. Prentice, Henry A. Griswold, Stephen 
H. Long, John B. Semple, Jacob Beckwith, of Ken- 
tucky. 

With the publication of some circulars sohciting 
subscriptions to a monument fund, the activity of both 
associations apparently spent itself, without perma- 
nent or material results, and the matter was forgotten 
except for intermittent references long afterward. At 
no time then, however, was any claim put forth that 
Robert Fulton had been more than merely a non-resi- 
dent owner of the land termed the "Fulton Tract," and 
the stories of his personal presence at Troy had their 
birth in subsequent years. 

That portion of Fulton's lands which became "Mis- 
tletoe Lodge," the estate of Judge Huntington, lay 
between the river and the Cannelton and Jasper plank 
road, whose general direction through what is now Tell 
City followed the north and south alley between 
Eighth (Main) and Ninth Streets. Such location is 
still indicated by the quaint old stone residence of 
Miss Katherine Holschuh, and the home occupied until 
recently by Miss Katherine Eith, both of which have 
their front toward what was once the leading thor- 
oughfare of Troy Township. The plank road led due 
north into the frame market house which formerly 
stood in the center of Tell City's present beautifully 
shaded City Park, on the spot where the City Hall was 
built about 1896. 

From there, or a little farther north, it appears to 
have turned toward the west, probably near what is 
now Tell Street, as it passed between the river and the 
home residence of Amaziah P. Hubbs, Sr., and his wife, 



310 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Jane (Gibson) Hubbs, whose farm was the last one of 
importance before reaching Troy. 

Great results were anticipated when some sections 
of this road were opened with a smooth surface of 
firm planking, but the grade established seriously mis- 
calculated the high water mark of the Ohio, ana a 
series of freshets wrought such havoc with the incom- 
plete portions laid down that the subscribers refused 
to advance further capital and such property as the 
company owned passed into the hands of Henry P. 
Brazee, Sr., and William P. Beacon at a forced sale. 

Railroad building was agitated in the early 'fifties 
through the Economist, but the geographical situation 
of Perry County was unfortunately such as to leave it 
outside the range of any of the important trunk lines 
planned to cross Indiana in either direction, a condition 
similarly and equally affecting the opposite tier of Ken- 
tucky counties between Louisville and Henderson. 
Prior to the construction of the Louisville and Nashville 
Railroad about 1851, meetings were held in Hawesvnle, 
in which Perry County citizens actively participated, 
seeking to induce a location of its route by way of Han- 
cock County, touching the river, but not all the elo- 
quence of Indiana and Kentucky combined could per- 
suade surveyors that the shortest line between the 
Falls of the Ohio and the capital of Tennessee lay 
through Hawesville. Nothing substantial, therefore, 
came of the effort and Hancock County was just one 
year behind Perry in finally procuring a railway out- 
let four decades later. 

In the flush years following the war between the 
States several nev/ routes were projected in the gen- 
eral vicinity of Perry County, none, however, actually 
penetrating the county itself. The nearest was the 
Rockport and Northern Central Railroad, planned to 
run from Rockport to Loogootee, on the Ohio and Mis- 
sissippi (Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern). This 
line approximately followed a route proposed as early 
as 1849 under the title of Rockport and Washington 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 311 

Railway. It is said (Goodspeed's "Spencer County," 
page 297) that $50,000 was voted in August, 1849, in 
Spencer County toward building this pioneer railroad, 
but the scheme never materialized. 

In the autumn of 1869 Spencer County voted 
$97,874.24, for the R. and N. C. R. R., two levies being 
made, in June of 1870 and 1871, and in 1872 its con- 
struction began, under the name of Cincinnati, Rock- 
port and Southwestern Railway, as it was designed 
eventually to touch Owensboro and Kentucky territory. 
The financial panic of 1873 came near giving the com- 
pany a death-blow in its infancy, but the track was laid 
across Spencer County, as far as Ferdinand Station 
(Johnsburg) in Dubois County, where it languished 
for a few years. 

February 14, 1879, however, saw the first train run 
through Huntingburg into Jasper, beyond which point 
the road was never built along the original survey. 
Through successive changes of ownership and name 
this line became in turn part of the Louisville, New 
Albany and St. Louis Air Line; the Louisville, Evans- 
ville and St. Louis; and finally the Southern Railway, 
under whose last management the French Lick Springs 
extension was opened December 1, 1907, giving the 
first through northern connection to the river counties 
lying between Floyd and Vanderburg. 

The earliest definite project for a railroad leading 
directly into Perry County came in 1871 from a com- 
pany organized as the Indiana Mineral Railroad, mag- 
nificently planned to run from Lake Michigan (at or 
near Chicago), through the block and cannel coal 
fields of Clay and Daviess Counties clear to the Ohio 
River, where a new manufacturing community was to 
be created under the name of Iron City. 

No exact spot for this terminal was ever definitely 
fixed, as the preliminary survey led thrcngh Anderson 
Valley as far as Troy and whether the road should 
thence lead east or west appeared an open question, to 
be settled by the amount which Perry or Spencer 



312 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

County should contribute to aid in building the road. 
Spencer County was already engaged on another line 
practically parallel, so viewed the new scheme with an 
equanimity bordering upon indifference, and the most 
strenuous efforts of the promoters were put forth 
to obtain a donation of $100,000 from Perry County. 

A two per cent, tax was asked from Troy Township, 
but as the company only offered to build their road to 
Gutenberg Street at the southern extremity of Tell 
City, the proposition was not considered favourably 
by either Cannelton or Troy, each town wishing to 
become the terminus. At an election held Monday, 
October 9, 1871, the tax was voted down by a vote of 
593 to 551, 472 of the ballots for the road being cast in 
Tell City, so the question was permanently settleci and 
no portion of the road was ever built. 

Immediately following this defeat a new project 
was launched from Evansville, the Ohio River Rail- 
road. It was proposed to run through Newburg in 
Warrick County, Rockport and Grandview in Spencer 
County, Troy, Tell City, Cannelton and Leopold in 
Perry County, following the valley of Deer Creek be- 
tween these last named points and ultimately reaching 
the St. Louis Air Line at some point near Hartford 
(English), Crawford County, or an independent line 
into New Albany. Forty miles of roadbed would thus 
have crossed Perry County, and $60,000 stock was 
voted toward its and January 13, 1872, by a vote of 
1,311 to 826, but the tax was never levied. 

Other elections were held later with results show- 
ing county sentiment as favourable to a railroad, but 
the plans invariably failed of fulfilment, so the tax 
levies voted were rendered void in each case and were 
never collected. In April, 1878, Troy Township voted 
$30,000 for the Southern Indiana Railway, and in July, 
1879, $29,500 to the Evansville Local Trade Railway, 
a narrow-gauge project whose outcome was the New- 
burg dummy line, later transformed into an electric 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 313 

suburban line and extended to Rockport and Grand- 
view in the present century. 

Clark Township in April, 1881, voted against a tax 
to aid the Evansville, Dayton and Eastern, an exten- 
sion of the road built from Evansville to Boonville in 
1876, and connecting in 1880 with the Rockport line 
at Lincoln City. This road, if built, would have barely 
crossed the northwest corner of Perry County, and its 
benefit to the citizens was felt to be negHgible. Troy, 
Anderson, Clark and Oil Townships in April, 1884, by a 
vote of 1,312 to 529, voted $35,178 toward the New Al- 
bany, Leavenworth and Cannelton Railway, designed 
to run over the same general route as the former Ohio 
River line, but work never progressed further than a 
preliminary survey. 

It was reserved for the shortest and most practical 
route ever suggested to be the first (and, up to 1915, 
the only one) built into the county, twenty-three miles 
filling up the gap between Cannelton and Lincoln City. 
The company was organized in 1886 as the Hunting- 
burg, Tell City and Cannelton Railway, but was from 
its inception practically a part of the Air Line system. 

As a means toward an end so long desired, and that 
financial aid might be oflUcially given, the municipal 
organizations of both Cannelton and Tell City were 
changed in the spring of 1886 from town to city cor- 
porations, the first city election in each place being 
held on the same day, the first Tuesday in May (4th), 
1886. As mayor of Cannelton was chosen Samuel T. 
Piatt, the councilmen being: first ward. Roan Clark, 
Alexander Quick; second ward, Jacob Heck, John J. 
McCarty; third ward, Joseph Whittaker, John Cum- 
miskey. Tell City's full corps of officials was made up 
of: August Schreiber, mayor; Albert P. Fenn, clerk; 
John Wichser, treasurer; Charles Grammberg, assess- 
or; William P. Kremer, marshal; John C. Harrer, An- 
ton Moraweck, John Hess, Valentine Ress, Henry 
Bader and Joseph Adam, councilmen. 

Work was begun on the roadbed from Lincoln City 



314 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

in the summer of 1887, and an unusually dry season 
permitting it to be carried on with few interruptions, 
the first passenger train into Perry County came on 
January 1, 1888, bringing a special party of Louis- 
ville business men and^railway officials over the Can- 
nelton Branch to the county seat, 

Cannelton's first mayor, Samuel T. Piatt, Sr., was 
a native of England, born about 1822 near the city of 
Liverpool, and before coming to America was married 
to Hannah Britton, by whom he was the father of two 
sons and two daughters. They located in Cannelton 
about 1851, and his earliest business venture was in 
association with James Lees and several others in a 
foundry and machine shop. Later, he became connected 
with the Indiana Cotton Mills and afterward postmas- 
ter for some time. For many years, however, he was 
mail agent on the old Louisville and Evansville packets, 
at a period when the trade was at its height, only 
losing this position in 1885 when the Democracy came 
back into power, as he had always been a prominent 
Republican. 

His election as mayor was a personal recognition of 
his efficient citizenship and not a partisan issue, and he 
gave eminent satisfaction during his brief administra- 
tion, brought to a premature end by his death, Sep- 
tember 24, 1886, when Peter Clemens was selected to 
fill out the unexpired term. 

Peter Clemens was of Prussian birth and parent- 
age, born May 8, 1829, in Recklinghausen, Westphalia, 
near the River Lippe, a son of Henry and Anna Maria 
(Ochel) Clemens. The region was rich in iron ore, and 
his father was engaged in the smelting business until 
seventy-five years old, living to the advanced age of 
eighty-seven. 

The son, who had learned the same business in his 
father's factory, came to America when twenty-three 
years old, landing June 21, 1852, at New York, but 
went on to Pittsburg as a center of the iron industry, 
where he worked for six months. As the extreme 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 315 

strain of labour began to tell on his health, he made 
a change in 1853, to the shoe and leather business. 
Mastering it by a two years' apprenticeship, he then 
located in Cannelton, where on May 19, 1856, he mar- 
ried Anna Maria Schneider, a native of Perry County. 
He died May 17, 1899, and by a singular coincidence 
his requiem mass was sung in St. Michael's Church on 
the forty-third anniversary of his marriage. Another 
coincidence, one without parallel in the county, was 
the circumstance that out of the nine children born to 
the marriage, two of the sons — Henry M. and Anthony 
P. — also held the same oflEice of mayor of the city of 
Cannelton. 

While always a stanch Democrat, Peter Clemens 
was never a machine politician or office-seeker. Though 
several times elected a trustee under the old town cor- 
poration, he served as such from a sense of actual duty 
toward his fellow citizens and from a public spirit 
which the rising generation might profitably emulate. 

Besides the fact that his term as mayor saw the 
first railroad built into Perry County (an enterprise 
toward which he had given much valuable assistance) , 
a purely local Cannelton improvement also completed 
while he held the office was the stone culvert over Cas- 
selberry Creek, which replaced the dangerous and un- 
sightly covered wooden bridge at the foot of Congress 
Street and endured until washed out by the cloud-burst 
of July 27, 1910. 

In the county seat strife of 1891, Peter Clemens 
took an active part toward building the new sheriff's 
residence and jail at Cannelton, and was equally con- 
cerned in the erection of the present beautiful Court 
House in 1896, which was the city's free gift to the 
county. One of his latest public projects, about 1896- 
97, was the extension of Seventh Street into a road 
above high-water mark (now a turnpike) leading over 
Brier Hill into Tell City at Fourteenth and Washmgton 
Streets. He had personally staked out a route, months 



316 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

before the county authorized the survey which, when 
made, followed very closely the line he had suggested. 
In religious circles he was among the foremost 
members in organizing St. Michael's Roman Catholic 
parish, and one of its original trustees. He loved 
the church "from turret to foundation-stone," and its 
ornate high altar is a fitting memorial of his uniform 
liberality, although his singular modesty forbade any 
inscription being placed thereon in his name. A mu- 
sician of cultivated taste, possessing a bass voice of un- 
uual volume, it was as a choral director that he pecu- 
liarly excelled, and with Peter Clemens as kapell- 
meister the compositions of Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, 
Lambillotte and other great masters were rendered on 
festal days by the choir of St. Michael's in a style 
rarely heard outside the larger cities. 



CHAPTER XXXV 

NEWSPAPERS AND FRATERNAL ORDERS. 

Notwithstanding the extremely creditable military 
record made by Perry County soldiery in the field or 
in defense of home during the war between the states, 
and the numerous resident veterans who "beat their 
swords into plough-shares and their spears into prun- 
ing-hooks" when peace was restored, it was not until 
sixteen years after the first National Encampment of 
the Grand Army of the Republic had been held at 
Indianapolis, November 20, 1866, that any steps were 
taken toward its organization in the county. 

As the first full company of men enlisting had gone 
out from Cannelton, it seemed altogether appropriate 
that the association designed to bind together the sur- 
viving boys in blue during the remainder of their lives 
should also be first formed at the county seat. 

Hence, in the spring of 1883, the nucleus of a local 
post was assembled in Cannelton, for which was 
chosen, by a graceful vote of all the eligible members, 
the name of a deceased soldier, a lieutenant in the 
original company leaving the county, whose dis- 
tinguished personal gallantry under fire had won for 
him a series of promotions to the final rank of major — 
Thomas James de la Hunt. 

On March 18, therefore, Captain Keller, of Evans- 
ville, formally instituted de la Hunt Post, No. 152, De- 
partment of Indiana, with the following roster of 
charter officers and men: James A. Burkett, com- 
mandant; Titus Cummings, senior vice; Joseph C. 
Richey, junior vice; John T. Patrick, quarter-master; 
John Zimmerman, sergeant-major; Rev. D. T. Davis, 
chaplain; Jacob B. Snyder, adjutant; John R. Weath- 
ers, officer of day; Will N. Underwood, William J. 



318 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Quick, Alexander Quick, William H. Harding, Leon- 
ard May, Eugene Devillez, Isaac Reed, J. W. Hill, W. 
H. Cummings, Anton Schmuck, Charles Kahler, John 
J. Bristow, William S. Lamb, Anderson Bolin, Robert 
Devers and Thomas Kiefer. 

As this membership represented Tell City, Rome, 
Leopold, Derby and other localities as well as Cannel- 
ton, an awakening of patriotic interest all over the 
county was a logical consequence. Memorial Day, May 
30, was for the first time formally celebrated in a fit- 
ting way, and its observance has never been discon- 
tinued, although somewhat of its original significance 
has perhaps been lost sight of by the rising genera- 
tion, through the pathetically diminishing number of 
comrades who muster in for the annual march. 

On July 4, 1883, Independence Day was celebrated 
once more in a manner recalling similar demonstra- 
tions of the "sixties" in Cannelton, the exercises tak- 
ing place at "Lion Park," a riverside pleasure resort 
kept by Anton Schmuck in the former grounds of "Elm 
Park," the old Francis Y. Carlile homestead. 

Under the skilful direction of Mrs. Charles H. Rose 
(Rose Moore) a chorus of voices rendered "The Star 
Spangled Banner" and other national songs. Further 
evidence of feminine talent was the expressive read- 
ing of the Declaration of Independence by an accom- 
plished young elocutionist, Miss Blanche Combs (Mrs. 
Charles B. Tichenor). The Hon. Heber J. May, joint- 
Senator from Perry and Spencer Counties, was orator 
of the day, and an original poem was read by Comrade 
John R. Weathers. A brief address was also deliv- 
ered by a former Confederate, Dr. John S. Bemiss, who 
had been a surgeon with Morgan's command. Doctor 
Bemiss had been one of the mounted marshals in the 
parade preceding the exercises at Lion Park, and 
showed his loyalty to a reunited country by the grace- 
ful tribute of wearing interwined his own old Southern 
sash with that of a NortheiTi officer, his devoted per- 
sonal friend, the late Major de la Hunt. 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 319 

From that time to the present, many encampments 
and reunions have been held by de la Hunt Post, and 
of these the most notable — on account of the famous 
veterans present — was that of September 4, 5 and 6, 
1886, also at Lion Park, which became for the time a 
tented city. General James C. Veatch, of Rockport; 
Colonel David Rodman MuiTay, Jr., of Clovei-port; 
Colonel Charles Denby, of Evansville, afterward Am- 
bassador to China for twelve years, each lent individual 
distinction to the occasion, but it was absolutely unique 
among all demonstrations ever witnessed in Perry 
County through the presence of two Indianians who 
later attained the supreme honours possible for state 
or nation to bestow, Alvin P. Hovey and Benjamin 
Harrison. 

As a delicate courtesy to the widow of their name- 
sake, the only woman whom they ever elected to hon- 
ourary membership, Mrs. de la Hunt (Isabelle Hucke- 
by) was invited by the Post to drive in an open 
barouche, seated between these two brigadier-generals, 
and on arrival at the camp they were received with full 
military honours. 

Just a year later than the Cannelton post w^as or- 
ganized, a charter was issued for Tell City, and the 
same memorial was there paid one of the town's earliest 
heroes in selecting his name for the post, and on March 
12, 1884, Captain Louis Frey Post, No. 287, was in- 
stituted, with George F. Bott, P. C. Rothley, Joseph 
Molinari, H. A. Grabhorn, Jacob Boyer, G. Zscherpe, 
Joseph Hauser, John Haerle, Peter Rossman, Edward 
Schultz, Alexander Gasser and Albert Jehle as its 
charter members. 

With the number of volunteers who had early en- 
listed from the eastern portion of the county, an or- 
ganization of survivors in Tobin To\\Tiship might na- 
turally be expected, and in November, 1884, at Rome, 
Commandant James A. Burkett, of de la Hunt Post, in- 
stituted Charles B. Wheeler Post, No. 392, under 
charter date of November 22, with the following ofR- 



320 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

cers and members : John Arnold Hargis, commandant ; 
Robert Thompson Huckeby, quarter-master; EHas J. 
Kaid, quarter-master sergeant; Edmund Connor, 
sergeant-major; J. F. Connor, chaplain; Jacob Paul- 
man, surgeon; William H. Kyler, officer of day; John 

D. Kroush, officer of guard; Andrew J. Earles, A. P. 
Wheeler, J. W. Wheeler, L. P. Rollins, D. A. Wheeler, 
Elijah Stroads, A. J. Bryant, John L. Baker, H. B. Mc- 
Coy, Abraham Crist, R. W. Robinson, H. P. Robinson, 
Wilham R. Polk, W. R. Gardner, Calvin Sampley. 

The Ancient Order of United Workmen had en- 
tered the county a few years earlier, Cannelton Lodge 

No. being organized in October, 1879, with Will 

N. Underwood, P. M. W.; Robert Payne, M. W.; 
Thomas Hollerbach, G. F. ; Alexander Quick, 0. ; Dr. 
Charles Heady Beard, R. ; Christian Kielhorn, F. ; Dan- 
iel Mueller, R. ; William W. Scott, G. W. ; August Hoch, 
I. W. ; Peter Bauer, O. W. 

Franklin Lodge, No. 94, was instituted December 9, 
1882, at Tell City, and its original officers were August 
Schreiber, P. M. W. ; Henry Nimsgern, M. W. ; L. 
Greiner, G. F. ; John Herrmann, 0.; Leander Yarito, 
recorder ; D. Charles M. Brucker, F. ; Richard Wind- 
pfenning, R. ; J. Gimbel, G. ; A. Gasser, L W. 

These lodges have had the usual career of the small- 
er fraternal and benevolent societies and their earliest 
years were their best, but William Tell Grove, No. 7, 
Druids, which was chartered July 7, 1864, to Christian 
Uebelmesser, Frederick Rass, John Hoby, John Ehret 
and J. J. Walters, of Tell City, is still in existence, as 
is also a thrifty Swiss Benevolent Society (Gruetli 
Unterstuetzungsverein), founded by the earliest col- 
onists and whose membership is limited to Switzer 
descendants. 

Tell City Lodge, No. 206, Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, was chartered May 17, 1859, to A. Pfaefflin, 

E. T. Reis, Philip Meyer, Gottlieb Mann, John H. Noel, 
John C. Schuing, Michael Hafling and Daniel Mueller. 
Odd Fellowship has always been strong in Tell City 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 321 

and, May 22, 1873, a charter was issued to Perry- 
Lodge, No. 418, with John S. Whitten, August Men- 
ninger, Andrew J. Smith, Sylvester Rainey, John 
Buehler, G. W. Lyon, John and Peter Herrmann, C. R. 
and A. P. Mastin as its first members. 

Allemania Encampment, No. 156, was chartered May 
18, 1881, to August Schreiber, Anton Moraweck, Louis 
Koch, Henry Fruehwald, Jacob Epple and Henry Grab- 
horn. 

The sister order of the Rebekah degree was insti- 
tuted some years later, its installation as Columbia 
Lodge, No. 314, taking place October 8, 1889, with the 
following as its first oflficers: John M. Kreisle, noble 
grand; Rose Althof, vice-grand; Katherine Hugger, 
secretary; Frederica Bader, treasurer. 

Early in the following summer (June, 1890) a sister 
lodge, Ohio No. 329, was instituted at Cannelton, mem- 
bers from Columbia participating in the installation of 
its first officers : William A. Wilson, noble grand ; Mrs. 
Sarah (Cleveland) Henning, vice-grand; Mrs. Clara 
(L'Argent) Huston, permanent secretary; Ella May 
Henning (Mrs. William Ellsworth Richey), recording 
secretary; Ella Wheeler (Mrs. Oscar Myers), treas- 
urer; Mrs. Eliza (Fairhurst) Chilton, warden; Mrs. 
Amelia (Johann) Plock, conductress; Mrs. Katherine 
(Klein) Loesch, inner guard; Philip Fuchs, outer 
guard; Mrs. Ella (Reed) Truempy and Margaret Chil- 
ton (Mrs. Charles A. Loesch), supporters noble grand; 
Mrs. Dinah (Piatt) May, supporter vice-grand. 

The Knights of Pythias were introduced to the coun- 
ty* by the institution of Tell City Lodge, No. 203, 
Knights of Pythias, on December 17, 1888, with twen- 
ty-two members and officers. Harry Delany, of Hunt- 
ingburg, acting as special deputy, conducted the cere- 
monies, assisted by brother knights from Huntingburg 
Lodge, No. 161, Lodge No. 64 and Uniform Rank Divi- 
sion No. 46, from Boonville. The original officers in- 
stalled were: Charles M. Brucker, past chancellor; 
Gabriel Schmuck Dusch, chancellor commander ; Henry 

(21) 



322 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

D. Stuehrk, vice-chancellor; Albert P. Fenn, prelate; 
Robert Huelsman, master of exchecquer; John Begert, 
Jr., master of arms ; Henry J. Stuehrk, keeper of rec- 
ord and seal ; Philip Zoercher, master at arms ; Charles 
Ebersold, inside guardian; Charles Meckert, outside 
guardian; William J. Becker, Gustave Walter, John 
Hartman, trustees. 

"Founded on naught but the purest and sincerest 
motives," as reads the opening sentence of their by- 
laws, Pythianism in Tell City has maintained a steady 
career, and despite the lapse of years several of the 
foregoing names remain on the roll of active Knights. 

George R. May, Henry H. Wilber, Jacob B. Snyder, 
George W. Pohl and Francis W. Feagans, of Cannelton, 
were among the charter members of this lodge, and 
with the increase of interest which their own town 
came to feel, an organization was effected there some 
fifteen months later. Ambrosia Lodge, No. 250, was 
instituted March 25, 1890, at Cannelton, with the fol- 
lowing officers: William F. Lees, past chancellor; 
Frank G. Whitacre, chancellor commander; James R. 
Lees, vice-chancellor; Benjamin F. Hemphill, prelate; 
Julius Peters, keeper of record and seal; John D. 
Mitchell, master at aiTns; W. B. Spurlock, inside 
guardian; John Heubi, outside guard; John T. Hay, 
Charles F. Breidenbach, Shubal C. Little, trustees. 
Some few years later, a UnifoiTn Rank iHvision was 
instituted, but removals and deaths so far reoiluced the 
resident membership in course of time that it was de- 
cided to surrender both charters and disband as an 
organized body. 

Freemasonry in Tell City had its beginning in the 
middle seventies, when Tell City Lodge, No. 507, was 
instituted, with Simon Jaseph, Jr., worshipful master ; 
James Clark, senior warden; August Schreiber, junior 
warden ; Frederick Voelke, treasurer, and August Men- 
ninger, secretary, but the membership was never large 
and its existence was not of long duration. 

Under the old name, but with a new number, work 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 323 

was carried on for a time by dispensation, some years 
afterward, and May 23, 1899, a charter was granted to 
Tell City Lodge, No. 623. Its officers then were Fred- 
erick G. Heinzle, worshipful master; Philip Zoercher, 
senior warden; William H. Schaeffer, junior warden; 
Albert P. Fenn, secretary; Joseph N. Dodson, treas- 
urer; Henry J. Stuehrk, senior deacon; William S. 
Webb, junior deacon; August Schreiber, senior senti- 
nel; John T. Patrick, junior sentinel; Casper Gloor, 
tyler. The present society now embraces many of the 
community's most valuable and representative citizens, 
both young and old. 

Derby Lodge, No. 1631, was the first Knights of 
Honour organization in Perry County, instituted in 
May, 1879, by Dr. Emanuel R. Hawn, of Leavenworth. 
Its charter members were Marion Fite, Dr. James B. 
Bennett, S. N. Badger, Scott Cunningham, Joseph 
Yates, Robert Brodie, John W. Davis, John S. Wil- 
liams, Matthew Cunningham, W. H. Richardson, W. H. 
Jones, J. T. Gilliland and Solomon Snyder. 

During the next year, or September 16, 1880, James 
W. Jacobs, grand protector of Indiana, organized a 
lodge at Cannelton for which a charter was issued 
June 8, 1881, as Excelsior Lodge, No. 2293, with John 
Zimmerman, dictator; Caleb W. Knights, reporter; 
Leonard May, treasurer, and twenty-five additional 
names upon its charter roll. 

Practically contemporary, and marking a period of 
growth among societies for fraternal insurance on the 
mutual plan, was the organization, January 18, 1888, 
in Cannelton, of Father Book Branch, No. 519, Catholic 
Knights of America, whose first officers were: Tim- 
othy T. Whelan, president; John J. McCarty, vice- 
president; Joseph P. Clemens, recording secretary; 
Isaac C. Dunn, financial secretary; Lawrence Keenan, 
treasurer; John Hayes, sergeant-at-arms ; Edwin B. 
Latimer, sentinel; Dr. Charles W. Ladd, examiner; 
Frank Gerber, Sr., Timothy E. Sweeney and Emil E. 
Haering, trustees. 



324 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

As spiritual director was chosen the Rev. John W. 
Book, then the joint pastor of St. Patrick's and St. 
Michael's congregations, the bestowal of whose name 
upon the society was but one mark of the affection in 
which he was held by his own people — an esteem 
shared by many outside his flock. Of German descent, 
though a native of Clark County, Indiana, October 21, 
1850, he was the son of William and Mary (Engel) 
Book. Entering St. Meinrad's Abbey at the age of fif- 
teen, his religious education was completed there, with 
the exception of two years' study at old St. Joseph's 
College, Bardstown, Kentucky. 

Elevated to holy orders on All Souls' Day (Novem- 
ber 2), 1873, by the Right Reverend Maurice de St. 
Palais, Bishop of Vincennes, he was given his first 
charge in the following January, St. Bernard's parish 
at Rockport, also serving St. Martin's, Centerville, and 
St. Rupert's, Yankeetown, as rural missions. In the 
summer of 1885 he was transferred to Cannelton, 
where he remained until the close of his earthly la- 
bours, October 1, 1898. 

He was a contributor to various magazines and peri- 
odicals, besides the author of several books gaining 
wide circulation, making for him a reputation which 
his personal diffidence never allowed him to claim. 
During his lingering illness he was constantly visited 
by warm friends of every creed, whose welcome at his 
bedside met no shade of difference, each caller leaving 
with a sense of benediction, whether spoken or un- 
uttered. The imposing obsequies in which twenty-five 
priests participated, October 4, in St. Michael's Church, 
marked a day of respectful veneration to his memory 
among all who had known him as a fellow-citizen of 
southern Indiana. 

St. Paul's Branch, No. 557, at Tell City, was insti- 
tuted a year later than that founded at Cannelton, 
forty-two names comprising its charter membership, 
which has increased (1915) to one hundred and eighty. 
Anton Paalz, president; Michael J. Dosch, vice-presi- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 325 

dent ; George Reimann, secretary ; John Birchler, treas- 
urer, and the Reverend William Kemper, spiritual di- 
rector, were the original officers. 

The centenary of Washington's first inauguration, 
which had a nation-wide observance on April 30, 1889, 
was not ignored in Perry County. Red-white-and-blue 
decorated homes, business houses and public buildings, 
appropriate exercises were held in the principal towns, 
perhaps the most distinctly commemorative being the 
brief rehgious service in St. Luke's Church, Cannelton. 

It is a matter of national history that Washington, 
who was a communicant of the Church of England, 
when Virginia was a royal province, and a vestryman 
of Christ Church, Alexandria, devoutly attended wor- 
ship in St. Paul's Chapel (Trinity Parish), New York, 
just after the inaugural ceremonies. He was accom- 
panied thither on foot from Federal Hall by the Vice- 
President, the Speaker, the two houses of Congress, 
and all who had taken part in the inauguration. They 
passed through a military guard into the church, where 
services were conducted by the Right Reverend Samuel 
Provoost, Bishop of New York, who was also Chaplain 
of the Senate. After prayers for the day were read 
and a "Te Deum" of thanksgiving had been sung, the 
President entered his state coach and was escorted to 
his lodgings. 

The pew in which he sat is marked by a suitable in- 
scription today, and on April 30, 1889, was occupied by 
another President of the United States, Benjamin Har- 
rison, of Indiana, who took part in the same words of 
prayer and praise, read from the original Colonial pray- 
er-book by another Bishop of New York, the Right 
Reverend Henry Codman Potter. 

In grateful recognition of Divine benevolence, the 
Bishops of the American Church ordered the same ex- 
act ritual to be used in all the Episcopal churches on 
the anniversary day, so the identical offices in which 
the Father of his country had participated were rev- 
erently conducted a hundred years later in St. Luke's 



326 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Church, Cannelton, by the rector, the Rev. Dr. R. Noyes 
Avery. 

Eighteen and eighty-nine was a year of patriotism 
everywhere, and saw the first mihtary organization 
(except during war time) in Perry County since the 
days of old mihtia musterings. This was a troop of 
Cannelton's young men, induced to enhst in the state 
guard through the persuasiveness of WilHam Cleve- 
land Henning, who had just returned from DePauw 
University where he had belonged to the cadet corps 
while pursuing his law studies. 

He was elected captain of the Cannelton Light In- 
fantry, Company D, First Regiment Indiana Militia, 
with George Palmer first lieutenant, and Edward Ev- 
erett Cummings second lieutenant. Mozart Hall was 
obtained for drill purposes, its name becoming 'The 
Armoury," and the company made a creditable show- 
ing during the period for which its men enlisted, at- 
tending state encampments, giving exhibition drills, 
dress parades, etc., and holding enjoyable military 
balls in the hall. The company's name was changed 
to the Ewing Guards in compliment to one of the state 
officers, but it was not reorganized after expiration of 
its term of service. 

Captain Henning was his father's namesake and the 
eldest son born to the third marriage of William Hen- 
ning, Sr., a native of Pennsylvania, December 17, 1829, 
but who was taken when six months' old to Germany 
by his parents, John and Dorothea (Hildebrand) Hen- 
ning. At the age of twenty he came back to America, 
living for a time near his birthplace but later in the 
"panhandle" of (West) Virginia, and in Ohio. Here 
he studied law, and in December, 1858, at Columbus, 
was admitted by the Supreme Court of Ohio to the 
practice of his chosen profession. 

His first marriage took place June 2, 1850, at Johns- 
town, Pennsylvania, to Elizabeth Helfenbein, who bore 
him one child. After her death, in 1854, Lena Howiler 
became his wife, at Millersburg, Ohio, and was the 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 327 

mother of two children. She died in 1858, and Sep- 
tember, 1860, he was again married, to Sarah EHzabeth 
Cleveland, of Calais, Ohio. This union lasted into its 
fortieth year, William Henning's death occurring 
March 27, 1900, and nine children grew to maturity 
as its offspring. Of these, eight were born in Can- 
nelton, which was the family home after 1866. 

William Henning and William Cleveland Henning 
practiced law together and were especially active in 
promoting the erection of the Cannelton water-works 
and electric light plants, whose construction work was 
done during the years of 1892-93. William W. Taylor, 
of Pennsylvania, a brother to Bayard Taylor, the poet, 
was builder and first superintendent, making his home 
for a time in Cannelton. Some five years later the 
Tell City people installed their municipal system of 
light and water, the cornerstone of the power-house 
being laid with formal public exercises. 

In proportion to its population no part of Indiana 
or of the nation showed greater interest or enthusiasm 
in the Columbian anniversary. October 12, 1892, 
found all of Perry County aglow with light and colour 
for "Columbus Day," and no sight more picturesque 
was ever witnessed in Cannelton or Tell City than the 
torchlight procession of that night, with their sym- 
bolic floats. Master Louis Gerard Snyder represented 
Columbus in the reproduction of the "Santa Maria" 
at Cannelton, carrying the royal Spanish standard, 
handwrought in satin, and on another float Queen Isa- 
bella in the midst of her courtiers was impersonated 
by Miss Sarah Lillian Dwyer (Mrs. Robert Curtis 
Clark). 

Cannelton can claim with certainty to have been one 
among the earliest of Southern Indiana towns enjoying 
a public library, although the present officially ac- 
knowledged public library is separated by a half-cen- 
tury's distance from the modest little collection of 
books brought together in the early 'fifties under the 
style "Workingmen's Institute." 



328 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

This was one out of 160 "institutes" profiting 
through the will of the famous William Maclure, of 
New Harmony, who bequeathed almost his entire for- 
tune toward the founding of "associations for the dif- 
fusion of useful knowledge," at his death March 27, 
1840, in San Angel, Mexico. His estate was left to 
trustees who were to appropriate a sum not exceeding 
$500 to any institute or club of workingmen in the 
United States that could give satisfactory evidence 
that they were properly organized and had a reading 
room of one hundred volumes. 

As might be expected, applications poured in from 
many states, until the whole fund was distributed. 
Cannelton was among the fortunate ones, but had no 
endowment for further maintenance after buying five 
hundred dollars' worth of books. No record is in evi- 
dence as to the dissolution of the Workingmen's Insti- 
tute, and its existence is only to be traced by some of 
its volumes yet treasured on the private shelves of 
old families whose members were among its original 
patrons. 

But the taste for reading never died out. In the 
summer of 1893 some fifty citizens joined in forming 
a subscription library, open to members and their fam- 
ilies on payment of an entrance fee and small monthly 
dues. At the beginning three hundred volumes were 
purchased and others were added as rapidly as the lim- 
ited income would permit. The books (kept in a private 
office), circulated widely, even beyond authorized 
bounds, proving the genuine demand for good reading 
matter. This, the city council came to recognize in 
1896, by making a tax levy of one-half of one per cent, 
for the establishment and support of a free public 
library under jurisdiction of the municipal board of 
education. 

This was felt to mark an era of progress by those 
who had so long and patiently striven to create and 
mould a local sentiment toward this end, and the im- 
mediate popularity which followed the opening of the 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 329 

library fully justified the sanguine hopes of its opti- 
mistic promoters. As a recognition of the faith- 
ful and arduous individual efforts exerted in three 
special instances, Mrs. Isabelle (Huckeby) de la Hunt, 
Solomon H. Esarey, and Thomas J. Truempy were ap- 
pointed the original Book Committee, and in such ca- 
pacity continued for several years to supervise the 
selection of new books. Semi-annual purchases were 
usually made, thus keeping somewhat abreast of cur- 
rent literature, though the standard classics were 
never ignored, and the resulting accumulation of nearly 
three thousand volumes has come to represent a liberal 
judgment along many lines. 

The first librarian was Mary Catherine Adkins (Mrs. 
William May), who held the post until 1900, when fol- 
lowed by Edward Everett Cummings, Charles A. 
Loesch becoming his successor after two years. In 
September, 1902, the library was moved from its pre- 
viously cramped quarters in a narrow hallway to an 
airy, spacious and well-lighted room on the ground 
floor of the City Hall, where the books have since been 
kept. Direct access to the shelves has always been 
permitted, and through the personal labour of the 
Woman's Travel Club in 1915, a card catalogue was in- 
stalled, although the numbering is simply that of ac- 
cession and does not follow any of the standard sys- 
tems of library cataloguing, such as the Dewey-Deci- 
mal or the Poole. 

It is distinctly creditable to Cannelton that such an 
institution has been founded and kept up, even upon so 
small a scale, purely by civic pride. No donations have 
ever been received other than the volumes originally 
comprised in the subscription library, yet the eye of 
Hope still turns toward the munificence of Indiana's 
already liberal benefactor — Andrew Carnegie. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

NEW COURT HOUSE — FIRST HIGH SCHOOL. 

Among numerous early stories often repeated but 
wholly impossible to substantiate, has been found the 
insistent claim of Troy to have had the pioneer news- 
paper printed in Perry County, represented by the 
Troy Gazette as founded in the year of Indiana's ad- 
mission. Interesting, however, as is the subject, it is 
yet one altogether without documentary evidence for 
its verification a century later, so the case must be 
reluctantly dismissed with the old common-law "Scotch 
verdict" — Not Proven. 

The only serious reference in print to any such 
paper which could be found was in an Illustrated His- 
torical Atlas of Indiana, published, 1876, by Baskin, 
Forster and Company, Chicago. In its sketch devoted 
to Perry County (page 327) is found the brief state- 
ment: "In 1816 the first paper was established. It 
was published at Troy, and called the Troy Gazette." 

Without depreciating the worth of the volume from 
a geographical standpoint, its historical material, in- 
so far as Perry County is concerned, can not be trusted, 
the same page bristling with such absolute errata in 
dates as completely to discount its value as an author- 
ity. Merely quoting a few of its most glaring inaccu- 
racies, the book states : "Perry County was organized 
in 1815" (1814). "In 1812 (1811) the first steamboat 
surprised the settlers." "* * * Henderson (Ander- 
son) Creek. At the mouth of this latter Thomas Lin- 
coln and his illustrious son Abraham kept a ferry 
from the spring of 1814 to that of 1817, when he re- 
moved to a farm about eight miles north of Rockport, 
Spencer County." "Henderson" Creek is recognizable 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 331 

as Anderson, but the "illustrious son Abraham" was 
just five years old in "the spring of 1814," certainly 
a tender age to qualify as ferryman and just three 
years before Thomas Lincoln himself made his first 
trip alone to Indiana. "About" is quite safely chosen 
to modify the "eight miles north of Rockport," where 
Lincoln City now stands on the "farm" in Spencer 
County, which was Perry County when the Lincoln 
family emigrated from Kentucky. Comment is super- 
fluous, though further extracts would be equally 
laughable. 

The theory of strongest probability, based upon 
minute and painstaking research carried on at Indiana 
University by the Department of Western History 
(whose chair is worthily filled by a loyal son of Perry 
County, Logan Esarey, Ph. D.), favours the conclusion 
that the Troy Gazette story had its origin in an allu- 
sion made to such a paper in the columns of the Vin- 
cennes Western Sun, as newly established in the year 
1816. 

Files of the Western Sun, Indiana's first newspaper, 
established 1804 and still published, are preserved in 
the University Library, and as no state was mentioned 
in speaking of the Troy Gazette, readers in after years 
assumed Indiana was meant while it was, in point of 
fact. New York. The Gazette, of Troy, New York, was 
founded in 1816, and some later items quoted from its 
columns by the Western Sun clearly indicate their 
source as from an eastern periodical. The American 
Antiquarian Society, of Worcester, Massachusetts, 
founded 1812, and the supreme authority of the United 
States on all such points, has given this decision, so 
the Troy Gazette of 1816 can not possibly be listed as 
an Indiana journal. 

To John B. Bacon, of Troy, a son of Dr. Jesse D. and 
Emma (Leming) Bacon, is therefore due the distinc- 
tion of establishing in 1890 the Troy Times, the first 
paper actually printed in Perry County's oldest town. 
For two years he continued its publication as a Demo- 



332 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

cratic weekly, selling out in April, 1892, to Louis J. 
Early, of Daviess County, Kentucky, who had been en- 
gaged in journaHsm at Louisville, associated with Wil- 
liam Stone Sterett( a son of the witty "Jeff" Sterett, 
of the Hawesville Plaindealer) , of Hancock County, in 
a sparkling Sunday weekly, "The Girl," devoted to so- 
ciety personalities, the drama, etc., printed on paper of 
an attractive pink tint. 

The Cannelton Telephone was founded October 25, 

1891, by Joseph Sanderson, of Evansville, and Edward 
C. Schuetz, of Cadiz, Kentucky, joint editors and pro- 
prietors until the former's withdrawal, August 12, 

1892. Schuetz continued publication alone until De- 
cember, when Early removed the Troy Times plant to 
a larger town, and the two papers were consolidated 
under the name Cannelton Times-Telephone. During 
1893 the hyphenated title was dropped and May 1, 
1894, Schuetz sold out his interest to Early, who has 
ever since continued as sole editor and proprietor of 
the Cannelton Telephone, whose politics have remained 
unvaryingly Democratic. 

Tell City's first permanently successful Democratic 
newspaper is almost contemporary, Philip Zoercher 
having founded the Tell City News, April 10, 1891. 
He remained for several years in full control, placing 
the sheet upon an established basis, but with increas- 
ing claims upon his time abandoned journalism for pol- 
itics and his profession of the law, the News then be- 
coming the property of his younger brother, Louis 
Zoercher, still its editor and proprietor, besides post- 
master of Tell City. 

The disrepair into which the county jail and sher- 
iff's residence had fallen during forty years of usage, 
led in the early 'nineties to some vigourous effort on the 
part of Tell City looking toward a third re-location of 
the county seat. As a preliminary move, strong oppo- 
sition was made to the expenditure of any money on 
the new buildings proposed at Cannelton, but the issue 
was settled by the commissioners favourably to the 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 333 

old site, and the present modern pressed brick sheriff's 
home, with stone jail in the rear, was duly erected 
about 1891-92. 

There was still latent, however, a pardonable spirit 
of discontent with the antiquated court house, built 
about 1856 as a school house, and only remodelled for 
court pui'poses in 1859 in the emergency of moving 
the county seat from Rome. Its accommodations were 
altogether inadequate, no less than unsanitary, which 
Cannelton's citizens thoroughly realized along with 
the rest of Perry County. 

The matter of distance — a mere detail of two miles 
— was not an argument to carry any weight against 
the costly modern municipal building under process of 
construction in the middle of Tell City's park, should 
it be offered as a donation to the county when com- 
plete, so Cannelton raised a fund approximating 
$30,000, and employed a Louisville architect, John 
Bacon Hutchings (whose father had formerly owned 
much property in Cannelton), to design what many 
cultured critics have pronounced the most truly artis- 
tic court house in Southern Indiana. 

A pure example of the Italian Renaissance style (fol- 
lowed later in the superb marble Federal Building at 
Indianapolis), carried out in straw-coloured pressed 
brick, with cut trimmings of Bedford limestone, its 
perfectly balanced symmetry of line is an effective 
illustration of the proverb, "Beauty is its own excuse 
for being." 

Its comer-stone was laid in the presence of an im- 
mense crowd, September 10, 1896, with the Masonic 
symbolism of corn, wine and oil. On the Fourth of July 
preceding, an elaborate industrial parade had been 
given in Cannelton, one float being a handsome model 
of the building-to-be, exact in every particular of colour 
and ornament, built to quarter-inch scale by Charles 
Hafele's Sons, proprietors of the Cannelton Planing 
Mill. Girls from the high and grade schools represented 
the states of the Union on another float, grouped 



334 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

around "Liberty," Miss Martha Hodde (Mrs. John J. 
Franzman, Jr.), "Columbia," Miss Adelia Clark (Mrs. 
Richard Turner Cash), and "Uncle Sam," Michael Cas- 
per. This was followed by a barbecue dinner, with 
dancing and other sports, at Wittmer's Avenue Garden. 

In June, 1897, the completed edifice, whose interior 
arrangement was all that professional skill could devise 
in point of convenience, was turned over to the County 
Commissioners, who readily accepted a generous gift 
against whose acceptance no reasonable objection could 
be alleged. The old court house and square were given 
back to the city of Cannelton, and have been turned 
into a city hall, public library and park, whose shade 
trees form a foreground setting to the county build- 
ings, much as if planned with the idea of a "civic cen- 
tre" for which so many larger communities are 
striving. 

The first property, other than court house or jail, 
which Perry County had ofl[icially acquired, was the 
county asylum and farm, for which provision was made 
in the late forties, although care of the unfortunate 
had begun with the organization of the county. In 
every township overseers of the poor were appointed, 
whose duty was to see that the indigent were suitably 
maintained, and who periodically presented their ex- 
pense accounts to the county board for allowance. 

Taylor Basye, Jehu Hardy and William Hatfield were 
appointed in June, 1847, as a special committee to se- 
lect and purchase a county farm. In September they 
reported having bought from Terence Connor for 
$900, 180 acres in section 38, township 6 South, range 
1 west, lying in Tobin Township some two miles north 
of Rome, Joshua B. Huckeby, Samuel T. Groves and 
James Boyle were authorized to erect necessary build- 
ings and repair those already standing, which was done 
at a cost of $216, and in 1848 Allen M. Ferguson built 
a new frame asylum costing $650, so that the entire 
place represented an approximate investment of $1,800. 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 335 

In September of that year Jonathan McMillan became 
the first superintendent. 

It argues favourably for the industry or the gener- 
osity of the time that the number of inmates rarely ex- 
ceeded five, so about 1853 the commissioners discon- 
tinued the asylum as a needless expense, renting the 
farm to tenants and placing the poor again in charge 
of their respective township trustees. 

Cornehus Markum became superintendent in 1857, 
and the farm was again used as an asylum until 1860 
when the county seat was moved to Cannelton. Mi- 
chael Dusch, Commissioner from the Cannelton district, 
was then emj^iowered to rent suitable quarters for an 
almshouse srnd engage a temporary superintendent, 
so for several years many of the county poor were 
boarded under contract at 45 cents per diem by Mrs. 
Sarah (Stonebridge) Dwyer, in a large frame house at 
the corner of Sixth and Taylor streets in Cannelton, 
which had been erected as a boarding house for cotton 
mill operatives. This building is yet standing, the pri- 
vate residence of Mrs. Stella (Hargis) Bush, but has 
been so completely and expensively transformed that 
its original use could never be suspected. 

The Tobin Township farm was first rented to John 
K. Groves for three years, then offered for sale at pub- 
lic auction, passing through the hands of Elijah B. 
Huckeby, Madame Felicite (Le Guerrier) Longuemare 
and Samuel T. Whitmarsh, none of whom ever com- 
pleted their payments, until in 1879 it was bought by 
Mrs. Anne Fuchs, and was later known as the Eitel- 
george place. 

Proposals for a tract of not less than five or more 
than twenty acres near Cannelton, Tell City or Troy, 
and suitable for a county farm, were called for by the 
commissioners in March, 1866, and in August twenty- 
three acres, a half-mile east of Cannelton on St. Louis 
Avenue extended, were bought of Lawrence Richardson 
for $1,265. Plans and specifications for a brick asylum 
were prepared the next year, James A. Burkett and 



336 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Benjamin H. Rounds being awarded the contract in 
June, 1867, for $8,948.45. The work was completed 
and accepted in December of that year, Patrick Lahey 
becoming the first superintendent in the new building. 

John C. Wade succeeded him in 1869, and the two 
years of his incumbency were notable for the efficient 
ability shown by his wife as matron. Mrs. Jemima 
(Edwards) Wade was a woman of strong character and 
marked personality, and the comparatively short time 
of her service in county work of charities and correc- 
tions developed traits which later brought her into a 
similar, wider field where she laboured for many years 
with noble success. In 1881 she was selected as first 
matron of the newly organized Christian Home in 
Evansville, a position which she held until the end of 
her life, January 30, 1911. Her mental powers and 
bodily activity were retained to a marvellous degree, 
and it was only when past ninety that she consented 
to resign active work, when elected Honourary Matron 
for Life, remaining the personal guest of the trustees 
with executive supervision as before, up to the time of 
her death. 

Samuel King followed John C. Wade as superintend- 
ent in 1871, and his successors during the next decade 
were August Nettelbeck, 1875 (when a wing to the 
asylum was built) ; Wilham W. Scott, 1876 ; Wesley C. 
Reid, 1881 ; Henry M. Howard, 1884. Among the later 
superintendents, particular praise is due the late Will- 
iam T. Tinsley, who served from 1903 to 1907. With 
his wife, Mrs. Nancy (Colvin) Tinsley as matron, the 
institution was maintained at a high standard and 
their work received official commendation from the 
State Board of Charities. 

The same month of September, 1896, which saw the 
corner-stone of the new court house laid, witnessed 
also the beginning of the first regularly commissioned 
high school in Perry County, that at Cannelton, and 
the major credit for having brought its work up to the 
requirements of the State Board of Education is due to 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 337 

the energetic superintendent, George Perry Weedman, 
himself a native of Perry County and a Hfelong edu- 
cator. While the school system in Cannelton had for 
some years given advanced work, it was not accredited 
by higher institutions and its students had no recog- 
nized standing in other schools. 

John R. Weathers, who took the principalship in 
September, 1882, formulated a curriculum of three 
years' high school work, and on June 19, 1885, the first 
"commencement" in Cannelton was held, although the 
diplomas were practically nothing more than certifi- 
cates from a school of no established affiliation, no 
matter how thorough a course of study had been pur- 
sued. Six young ladies were graduated : Misses Lulu 

Bemiss (Mrs. ), Etta Cummings (Mrs. Charles 

Steinsberger) , Harriet Gingell (Mrs. Schwaderer), 
Ella May Henning (Mrs. William Ellsworth Richey), 
Sissie Hurley, Daisy Permeha Marshall (Mrs. John 
Adam May), Hannetta Mueller (Mrs. John Vogel) and 
Genevieve Palmer (Mrs. Sanders). Their essays re- 
flected the usual sentiment of academic programmes 
and the most individually original touch lay in the 
class motto which they chose for themselves : "Genius 
Has No Brother." 

A second class was graduated under Professor 
Weathers' superintendency, in 1886, its membership 
including one young man, Walter Mark May, and six 
girls. Misses Lulu Cummings (Mrs. James Ulysses 
Powell), Sara Tevlin (Mrs. William E. Dougherty), 
Ehza Scott Shallcross (Mrs. Frederick Jennings), Mar- 
garet Teresa Mitchell (Mrs. E. C. H. Sieboldt) , Kather- 
ine Hurley and Nellie Grace Robinson. During the sub- 
sequent ten years some several diplomas were annually 
awarded, as a rule, but the ceremonies were seldom 
more elaborate than the "public examinations" which 
were then regarded as an indispensable feature of "the 
last day of school." 

It was, however, an event of genuine importance 



(22) 



338 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

when nine students completed a full four-years' course 
in required high school branches, and the large opera 
house which Will N. Underwood had built in 1887 
never held a finer audience than on the evening of May 
22, 1897, when the class of '97 received the first actual 
diplomas conferred by a Perry County high school. 

The Rev. Palin Saxby, rector of St. Luke's church, 
pronounced the invocation, and the programme was di- 
versified with vocal and instrumental music from lo- 
cal talent, but each graduate delivered an original ora- 
tion, whose topics displayed familiarity with the 
classics of literature, as well as with current happen- 
ings. The speakers and their subjects were: Curtis 
Joseph Richey, "Over Our Manhood Bend the Skies;" 
Cyrus McNutt Worrall, "Nothing to Do ;" Clara Loretta 
Dwyer (Mrs. Michael Casper), "Cato's Daughter;" 
John Robert May, "The Fault, Dear Brutus, is Not in 
Our Stars, But in Ourselves ;" Michael Casper, "Resolve 
is What Makes Man Manliest;" Delilah Jane Turner, 
"What I Must Do, Not What People Think;" Arena 
Hunsche (Mrs. Lawrence Oncley), "Education's Best 
Work ;" Edwin Philip May, "Oh, the Times ;" and Olive 
Kendley (Mrs. Taylor Richey), "The Morning and the 
Evening." 

For several years this was the only commissioned 
high school in the county, pupils from Tell City, Ander- 
son, Tobin and other townships attending at Cannelton 
in order to make their entrance requirements for vari- 
ous colleges and universities. 

With Christian Newman as superintendent, and 
James Hardin Whitmarsh as principal, however, the 
course of study in Tell City was raised to an approved 
standard, so that a commission was issued in 1904, and 
in the following spring the first class received their 
diplomas. 

Commencement exercises were held Friday evening, 
June 2, 1905, in the Tell City Opera House, on a stage 
fragrant with summer flowers, amid delightful music 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 339 

from Moutschka's Orchestra. The Rev. J. M. Lannore, 
pastor of the Methodist church, gave the invocation. 
A thoughtful essay, "Literature," by Bessie Viola Scull 
(Mrs. Matthew Roehm) ; an oration, "Education, the 
Defense of a Nation," spiritedly delivered by Bert Fenn 
(a young man of admirable promise, whose untimely 
taking away less than a year later was a source of 
grief to all who knew him) ; and an artistic impersona- 
tion, "The Marble Dream," by Cecile Schaeffer; made 
up the portion of the programme furnished by the 
graduates, after which a talk was given by Professor 
Kemp, of Indiana State NoiTnal, and Eugene G. Huth- 
steiner, of the school board, presented the diplomas. 

From that time on the classes have increased in num- 
ber and enthusiasm, while the faculty also has grown 
apace, to meet every demand. The new edifice at the 
corner of Tenth and Franklin Streets is the finest and 
most perfectly equipped high school building in the 
county, with large assembly hall, gymnasium, piano, 
laboratories, etc. School spirit is wide-awake and fos- 
tered by an active alumni association. Athletics of 
every kind are given due prominence among both girls 
and boys, with encouraging sanction of the faculty, and 
a praiseworthy annual, "The Rambler," has been is- 
sued successfully for several years. 

Rome's was the third high school in point of time, 
its first class graduated June 13, 1908, with Harold 
Littell as principal, consisting of Misses Hettie Isabella 
Vititoe, Rebecca Ruth Shoemaker (Mrs. Noah Trainor) 
and Amy Josephine Bagot (Mrs. Ira Longanecker) . 
Each of these took part in the commencement exer- 
cises in the historic old academy, though the leading 
feature was the baccalaureate address delivered by one 
of the most cultured and scholarly speakers who ever 
graced a Perry County rostrum, Lewis Chase, Ph.D., 
of Columbia University, later a professor in the Uni- 
versity of Bordeaux, and now prominent in the liter- 
aiy circles of London. 



340 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Since then, the spirit has diffused itself into every 
township of the county, so that accredited high schools 
are now in successful operation in Troy, Tobinsport, 
Bristow, Leopold, Branchville, Union Township and 
Anderson Township. 

Verily, a far cry from the primitive, pioneer begin- 
nings of education in Perry County. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

PRESENT CENTURY EVENTS. 

Keeping abreast with the universal advance of wo- 
man in every activity of the world's progress, early 
in the Twentieth Century, or on September 30, 1801,' - VHU'i 
to be exact, Tell City Chapter No. 272, Order of the 
Eastern Star, was instituted with impressively elabo- 
rate ritual in the Masonic hall at Tell City. 

Its first officers were Mrs. Eva (Schloth) Schreiber, 
Worthy Matron; Mrs. Anna (Menninger) Patrick, As- 
sistant Matron; Emma Menninger, Secretary; Mrs. 
Emihe (Stuehrk) Mason, Treasurer; Mrs. Martha (Mc- 
Adams) Zoercher, Conductress; Mrs. Elizabeth 
(Gautchie) Heinzle, Assistant Conductress; Louise 
Kasser (Mrs. Gurley Purdue) Adah; Mrs. Mary (Ried- 
linger) Kasser, Ruth; Emma Bader (Mrs. Phillips), 
Esther; Clara Patrick, Martha; Mrs. Emma (Rudin) 
Rheinlander, Electa; Zillah Walters (Mrs. D. Eugene 
Hicks), Warder; William H. Schaeffer, Worthy Patron; 
Christian Zoercher, Jr., Sentinel. 

Nineteen names are on the charter-roll, and one of 
these members has since attained the most exalted Ma- 
sonic honour which the craft in Indiana can award to 
a woman, Mrs. Martha (McAdams) Zoercher, now resi- 
dent in Indianapolis, having been elected Grand Matron 
for her native state at the Grand Chapter of 1914. 

Among those who had signed the application for a 
charter were two enthusiastic Masonic daughters, 
Misses Flora Menninger and Alice Patrick, who were 
prevented by absence from becoming charter members. 
Ill health, from which she never recovered, had com- 
pelled the former to seek a change of climate in the 
"Sunshine State," Colorado, whither the latter, her de- 



342 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

voted niece, accompanied her; but an interesting per- 
sonal detail is the fact that Miss Patrick (Mrs. Louis 
Zoercher) later enjoyed the privilege of being the local 
chapter's first initiate. 

The first move toward definite club work among the 
women of Perry County also had its beginning in Tell 
City about 1906, and the name of Mrs. Robert Proctor 
Carr (Anna Upton) may be given as its virtual 
founder. The Women's Reading Club then organized 
and now in full swing of success, had for its original 
officers: Mrs. Philip Zoercher (Martha McAdams), 
president; Mrs. R. P. Carr, secretary. Owing to re- 
moval, neither of these energetic women is now a mem- 
ber of the club, though their strong influence is still 
felt and gratefully acknowledged among their co- 
workers. 

As the community center of a rich agricultural sec- 
tion, Tobinsport has always been peculiarly the home of 
Farmers' Institute work in Perry County, and women 
have always had a place among the annual instructors, 
no less than among the intelligently interested listen- 
ers. In November, 1912, directly following an institute 
session, the Tobinsport Home Economics Club was 
formed with Mrs. W. 0. Little (Ethel Booker), as its 
first president; Mrs. J. Curtis Ryan (Mollie Clark), 
treasurer, and Mrs. James H. Payne (Addie Polk Mil- 
ler) , secretary. Their work is conducted along lines of 
university extension in domestic science, directed from 
Purdue. 

About a year later, in 1913, also under the sponsor- 
ship of Purdue, a number of Tell City's progressive 
housekeepers organized a home economics club, which 
is one of the most influential societies in the town. Its 
original officers were Mrs. John Sweeney (Louise 
Marti), president; Mrs. John Herrmann (Dora Kay 
Simonson), vice-president; Mrs. Louis Zoercher (Alice 
Patrick), secretary; Mrs. Frank Oberle (Anna Vogel), 
treasurer. 

The Woman's Travel Club, of Cannelton, was organ- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 343 

ized in September, 1914, with Mrs. Lee Rodman (Mar- 
gherita Welling), president; Mrs. Frank H. Clemens 
(Marguerite Cullen), vice-president; Mrs. D. Eugene 
Hicks (Zillah Walters), secretary-treasurer. Their 
first year's programme was one of foreign study, but 
for 1915-16 Indiana History was chosen as the major 
topic, together with current events and practical plans 
for civic improvement and beautification. 

In the same year with the Eastern Star, though some 
months earlier, another national fraternal order made 
its entry into the county, March 15, 1901, when Cannel- 
ton Camp No. 9348, Modern Woodmen of America, was 
organized, with the following officers: Venerable 
Council, Claude T. Hendershot; Adviser, Arthur E. 
'Stewart; Clerk, William Guthrie Minor; Banker, 
Charles L. Bartles; Escort, John D. Rathsam; Watch- 
man, Charles P. Marshall; Sentry, Thomas H. 
Doughty; Trustees, Anton Zellers, J. W. Maxwell, 
Charles H. Walls. 

In the galaxy of Hoosier literature "Ben-Hur" has 
carried the name and fame of Lew Wallace clear around 
the world, and a national benevolent society, founded 
in 1894 in Indiana, at General Wallace's home town of 
Crawfordsville, was appropriately styled The Tribe of 
Ben-Hur. It was introduced into Perry County about 
1904 by Dr. Millard F. Wedding and Rodney W. Shoe- 
maker, both of Rome, where their efforts formed a lo- 
cal branch. Its charter was held as an open one for 
something like two years, or until 1906, when Rome 
Lodge No. 283, T. B. H., was officially installed, with 
Samuel G. Reynolds as Chief, Doctor Wedding as 
Scribe, and Samuel S. Connor as Keeper of Tribute. 

One of the youngest among the great fraternal or- 
ders is the Knights of Columbus, and its nation-wide 
growth had measured not quite a quarter century when 
its introduction to Perry County took place, January 
13, 1907. On that day Cannelton Council No. 1172, 
was formally instituted the initiation work conducted 
by degree teams from visiting councils in I. O. 0. F. 



344 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

Hall (courteously lent for the occasion). This required 
several hours of continuous ceremony, and was followed 
by a banquet in St. Patrick's Hall, into which the sec- 
ond St. Patrick's church (built 1882 at the comer of 
Sixth and Adams Streets), had been changed on the 
union of the two Roman Catholic parishes. 

Fifty charter members from Cannelton, Tell City, 
Troy and other places in the county were enrolled and 
the first officers installed at this same time were : Nor- 
man E. Patrick, Grand Knight; William E. Dougherty, 
Deputy Grand Knight; Martin F. Casper, Chancellor; 
Joseph M. Hirsch, Recorder; Anthony J. Kirst, Finan- 
cial Secretary; Peter H. Casper, Treasurer; Henry M. 
Clemens, Lecturer; Michael D. Casper, Advocate; 
Thomas Cullen, Warden; Francis J. Busam, Inside 
Guard; Edward J. Stich, Outside Guard; George W. 
Hufnagel, Joseph J. Graves, Andrew Vogel, Trustees; 
the Rev. George H. Moss, Chaplain. 

Although other industries have been undertaken at 
different times with varying degrees of success, the 
most important manufacturing enterprises inaugurated 
in Perry County since the early days of Cannelton and 
Tell City have been the United States Hame Company 
and the Cannelton Sewer Pipe Company. 

About 1903-04 the Herrman Brothers' factory in 
Tell City was taken over by the United States Hame 
Company, but remained for two years on the old site 
at Ninth and Blum Streets, under supervision of 
Charles F. Herrman. During 1905-06 extensive plans 
were perfected for enlarging the plant and Robert 
Proctor Carr came from Andover, New Hampshire, to 
assume the duties of superintendent. Ground was pur- 
chased just south of the original corporate limits of 
Tell City, lying along the old Cannelton and Troy plank 
road (now Riverside Drive) and reaching as far as the 
Brazee homestead, "Mulberry Park." Situated be- 
tween the river and the Southern Railway, excellent 
transportation facilities were thus available on either 
side, and a vast equipment of buildings was erected 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 345 

there, and machinery installed, making a plant which 
is an accepted model of its kind. The weekly output 
of hames (22,000 pair) is the largest of any factory 
in the world, and the operating force when running 
full time, is over two hundred men. 

The superior qualities and inexhaustible quantities 
of the clay underlying the hills at Cannelton were 
touched upon more than once in the official reports of 
State Geologist Blatchley, and its availability for sewer 
pipe of the highest grade had been demonstrated by 
test, but its use was long confined to the manufacture 
of pottery by the original Clark Brothers, the later 
distinct firai of Clark Brothers, and the Cannelton 
Stoneware and Pottery Company, of which J. Crutcher 
Shallcross is president. 

In 1908-09, however, the Cannelton Sewer Pipe Com- 
pany was organized by local and Louisville capital, and 
ground procured just opposite the Southern Railway 
station at Front and Adams Streets. The old hotel, 
built in 1849 by the American Cannel Coal Company, 
still occupied a part of the premises and a portion of 
it was utilized for offices, moulding rooms, etc. A four- 
story brick factory was erected, with a battery of 
twelve kilns, whose number was increased to eighteen 
during the next year, by the growing demands of the 
business, which proved a success from the outset. 

Henry M. Clemens is official manager, and Anthony 
P. Clemens superintendent of the working force which 
numbers eighty people, in addition to the office corps 
and traveling salesmen. Two thousand tons of native 
clay are worked up each month, at a fuel expenditure 
of twelve hundred tons of coal, producing an annual 
output of 1,000 carloads of finished ware, and the yearly 
pay-roll is near $50,000. 

Inspired by a laudable sentiment of local pride, the 
citizens of Tell City arranged to celebrate the fiftieth 
anniversary of their town's foundation by a fitting 
golden jubilee, a "Home-Coming Week," the first in 
Perry County, held June 28 to July 4, 1908. The occa- 

(23) 



346 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

sion was carefully planned and excellently advertised 
in advance, so that fully twenty-five hundred visitors 
enjoyed the gala week, many of whom came back from 
afar after long years of absence. 

Home-Coming Sunday opened the programme, with 
commemorative morning services in all the churches, 
and an afternoon concert of choral and instrumental 
music in the park. Monday at 2 p. m, a reception to 
old settlers was given in the park, Philip Zoercher de- 
livering an address of welcome, to which Albert Bet- 
tinger, of Cincinnati, responded. A display of fire- 
works from a barge in the river was a night feature, 
for which seats were arranged all along the water- 
front. Tuesday morning a Schoolmates' Reunion in 
the old North Building revived memories of childhood 
years as nothing else could have done, teachers and 
pupils coming together once more in the familiar rooms 
to recall days that were gone but not forgotten. 
Wednesday, an old-fashioned basket picnic was held at 
Camp Sherman, itself the scene of so many historic 
associations, the ground being placed at public disposal 
through the graceful courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Albert 
P. Fenn (Anna Zoercher) who had built a summer 
home there as part of their large fruit farm. A base- 
ball game between Tell City and Rockport was also a 
feature. At 9 o'clock Thursday morning memorial ad- 
dresses were pronounced in the First Evangelical 
church, by Gustave L. Spillman, in English, and Dr. 
William Simon, in German. Friday was devoted to 
visiting the manufacturing plants, all of which were in 
operation and open to sightseers, with guides in at- 
tendance to explain and demonstrate. Saturday, the 
"Glorious Fourth" witnessed a patriotic celebration of 
Independence Day, with all the customary and appro- 
priate observances. A pyrotechnic display was given 
every night, two halls were opened for dancing, and a 
variety of popular entertainment was furnished by a 
carnival company presenting sundry free attractions 
of street fair nature. 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 347 

Probably the only monthly magazine ever published 
in Perry County, one of uncommon character among a 
small class of its kind, is the Derby Game Bird, estab- 
lished September, 1892, by Alexander ("Eck") W. Cum- 
mings, and printed for nearly eighteen years on his 
farm a few miles south of Derby. Its circulation ran 
into the thousands, and as an advertising medium in 
its particular field none was rated higher. 

The material details of its production on so large a 
scale in the country, added to the inconvenience of dis- 
tribution through a small postoffice twelve miles from 
a railroad, led in the spring of 1910 to a removal to 
Tell City; although the old name has been retained. 
Larger presses and equipment were purchased, permit- 
ting a weekly journal to be printed in the same office, 
so on June 25, 1910, appeared the inaugural number of 
the Perry County Tribune, as a Republican sheet, with 
Uriah B. Cummings, son of Alexander and Jennie (Bal- 
lard) Cummings, as its proprietor and editor. 

The November election of 1912 in which the Democ- 
racy headed by Wilson and Marshall won such sweep- 
ing victories in state and nation, brought additional 
honours to a Tell City man who had already represented 
his home county in the Lregislatures of 1887 and 1889, 
Philip Zoercher, who was chosen to the responsible 
office of reporter of the Indiana Supreme Court. He 
had been graduated in law from Central Normal Col- 
lege at Danville (a small but effective institution among 
whose other Perry County alumni have been William 
G. and Oscar C. Minor, Solomon H. and Logan Esarey, 
Ferdinand Becker, II, Joseph Herr and Gustave A. 
Fischer), nor was the element of school-room romance 
lacking, through the fact that he there first met his 
wife (Martha McAdams, of Plainfield) as a fellow- 
student. 

So great was the enthusiasm over the result on both 
sides of the Ohio that arrangements were made for a 
joint Indiana-Kentucky ratification in which Perry and 
Hancock Counties should unite. Cannelton, as the 



348 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

larger town and equally accessible with Hawesville, 
was fixed upon as the place and Thursday evening, 
November 21, as the time. Free ferriage transported 
Kentuckians by the hundred from Hawesville, Lewis- 
port, Pellville, Utility, Skillman and other Hancock 
County points, while Tell City, Troy, Leopold, Bristow, 
Rome, Derby and practically all the rest of Perry 
County were in Cannelton on that night. 

Fully a thousand persons were in the parade, which 
was one continuous circuit of red fire from its starting 
point at Seventh and Adams Streets to its culmination 
at the court house in a magnificent tableau of blended 
colours. County Clerk William V. Doogs, dressed in 
white and mounted on a white horse, headed the pro- 
gression, carrying the national standard, while the other 
mounted mashals were Mayor Oscar 0. Denny, D. Eu- 
gene Hicks and James Evrard. The Hawesville Con- 
cert Band furnished instrumental music ; young women 
dressed in white sang patriotic songs; another float 
held "Jubilee Singers and Orchestra," Joseph M. 
Hirsch, leader; John Hambleton, John Hayes, Charles 
Barney, Charles Fishback, Edward Wittmer and Will- 
iam Whelan, who warbled and played characteristic 
Southern melodies ; a drum corps comprising Theodore 
Gerber, Edward Minnett, Harry Belleville and Oscar 
Lehmann contributed volume if not harmony. Eighteen 
differently inscribed transparencies were carried ; from 
motor-car to ox-cart ranged the variety of vehicles; 
and near a hundred horsemen were in the line which 
passed through brilliantly illuminated streets, densely 
thronged by a crowd which the next week's Cannelton 
Telephone estimated at from 6,000 to 8,000 people. 

An immense bonfire on the hill point above Taylor 
Street lighted up the heavens for miles and was visible 
at Troy and Tobinsport, where also could be heard the 
presidential salutes of artillery discharged at frequent 
intervals. 

When the parade disbanded, the court house was al- 
ready filled, but many others crowded in, to hear the 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 349 

famed eloquence of Augustus Owsley Stanley, then a 
candidate for United States Senator, but elected Gov- 
ernor of Kentucky in November, 1915. After a musical 
selection, Chairman Henry M. Clemens presented Ed- 
ward E. Kelly, of Newport, Kentucky, a former Han- 
cock County boy, as the first speaker. His talk was 
brief, mainly an effective introduction of Stanley, 
whose glowing effort then held his listeners for fifty- 
five minutes in rapt attention. As a conclusion to the 
meeting, a ratification ball was announced to follow 
immediately in Acme Hall, where Hoosier and Corn- 
cracker — Democrat or Republican — merrily danced 
until the wee sma' hours ayont the twel'. 

The unprecedented record of two excessive freshets 
within less than three months of each other will make 
the year 1913 forever memorable in the natural history 
of the Ohio Valley. 1832, 1883 and 1884 had long been 
marked points to reckon from, and 1907 came close to 
reaching these in height. 

Heavy rains in January, 1913, brought a rise of un- 
expected swiftness, so that like most of the other tovv'ns 
along both banks the lower portions of Cannelton, Tell 
City, Troy and Hawesville were submerged. Many 
families were driven from their homes on short notice. 
Train service was annulled over the Cannelton branch 
of the Southern Railway and over the Henderson route 
for its entire length, as miles of both tracks were under 
water, and every factory in Tell City was at a stand- 
still. The Tell City Journal of Wednesday, January 15, 
came out in half-sheet form, with boxed headlines ex- 
plaining that the water was then rushing into their 
rear press-room and their motor clogged so that work 
had to be done by hand. 

Unofficial bulletins indicated the river falling above, 
so the crest of the rise was expected on that day, but 
the town was described as a complete peninsula. The 
river washed the foot of Camp Sherman hill at the 
south, and toward the north spread for miles in the di- 
rection of Windy Creek and Troy, while the water-way 



350 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

down Eighth (Main) Street was "a pretty, though 
costly, spectacle." 

But the terrible cloud-bursts which swept across the 
states of Indiana and Ohio during Easter week (be- 
ginning March 23) of that year carried such fatalities 
of devastation to towns and cities in the Wabash, 
White, Whitewater, Miami, Scioto, Olentangy and 
Muskingum Valleys, that the mere flood-tide which re- 
sulted in the lower Ohio was not a circumstance of dan- 
ger in comparison. 

After two days of continuous rainfall in Perry County 
the weather cleared and fine spring days followed dur- 
ing which it was a marvelous sight to watch the river 
steadily climbing until all records had been surpassed. 
There was less suffering or inconvenience than there 
had been in January, every one threatened having had 
time to move to higher ground. Tuesday morning, 
April 1, the water overtopped a marker in the Indiana 
Cotton Mill premises placed there by Superintendent 
Wilber. Set into a sandstone block is a marble slab 
inscribed : "The top of this stone is level with the high 
water mark here February 18, 1883, and 18 inches 
higher than the high water mark of 1832." The rec- 
ord of 1884 was 9f inches higher than that of 1883, 
and it was generally conceded that 1913 exceeded this 
in both Cannelton and Tell City. 

Owing to alteration in street and sidewalk grades it 
was difficult to determine the question in the absence 
of permanent markers, but on Thursday, April 3, skiffs 
were landing in Washington Street, Cannelton, at the 
intersection of Smith (between Second and Third), 
while Tell City's Eighth (Main) Street was under 
water as far north as the Citizens' Bank building be- 
tween Humboldt and Franklin ; and Seventh Street for 
its entire length was a canal or lagoon through which 
plied every variety of craft, from the plebeian joe-boat 
to the aristocratic gasoline launch. 

Public utilities of electric light and water works were 
cut off in both towns. No trains nor steamboats ran. 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 351 

Telegraph and telephone service was virtually discon- 
tinued, and mails were completely suspended for more 
than a week. With all these discomforts, general good 
humour prevailed. Idle business allowed much inter- 
change of neighbourly visiting. Kodaks and cameras 
were in evidence on all sides, so that the pictorial story 
of April, 1913, can be accurately reproduced in the 
years yet to come. 

During the autumn of this eventful year steps were 
taken in Tell City toward the formation of a Moose 
Lodge, and on October 13, 1913, Tell City Lodge No. 
1424, Loyal Order of Moose was organized. Its first 
officers installed were: Wilham T. Hargis, Dictator; 
Louis A. Siebert, Vice-Dictator ; Richard C. Bohm, Pre- 
late; Sidney C. Cummings, Secretary; Gustave A. 
Fischer, Treasurer ; Carl A. Bergis, Sergeant-at-Arms ; 
Joseph Wulf, Inner Guard; Floyd Blackford, Outer 
Guard ; Theodore Brenner, Edward J. Schultz, Frank J. 
Becker, Trustees. 

At the beginning of 1915 the personal enthusiasm of 
several young men agitated the organization of a mili- 
tia company in Tell City, resulting in the enlistment 
of seventy-five men. They were sworn into service on 
February 14, as Company I, of the Second Indiana 
Regiment, with Sidney C. Cummings, captain; Volmar 
Franz, first lieutenant; Edwin D. Patrick, second lieu- 
tenant. The company went into camp during the sum- 
mer, at Indianapolis, with the state guard, and for such 
a new body of troops made a most excellent official 
rating. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

INDIANA CENTENNIAL. 

The approach of the state's centenary of admission 
was recognized by the General Assembly of 1915 by the 
appropriation of $25,000 toward creating the Indiana 
Historical Commission, a part of whose duties (accord- 
ing to the act) were to be: 1. "To edit and publish in 
such form as it may determine documentary materials 
on the history of the State of Indiana. 2. To prepare 
and execute plans for an historical and educational 
celebration of the Centennial of the State." 

"The Commission may arrange such exhibits, pa- 
geants and celebrations as it may deem proper to il- 
lustrate the epochs in the growth of Indiana ; to reveal 
its past and present resources in each field of activity ; 
to teach the development of industrial, agricultural and 
social life, and the conservation of natural resources." 

At the head ex-ofRcio, of this Commission was His 
Excellency Governor Samuel M. Ralston, as President; 
Dr. Frank B. Wynn, of Indianapolis, Vice-President; 
Dr. Harlow Lindley, of Earlham College, Secretary, 
were the other officers, with Miss Charity Dye and 
Charles W. Moores, of Indianapolis ; Samuel M. Foster, 
of Fort Wayne; Dr. James A. Woodburn, of Indiana 
University; the Rev. Dr. John Cavanaugh, of Notre 
Dame University, and Lewis M. O'Bannon, of Corydon, 
as the remaining six members required. These elected 
Dr. Walter C. Woodward, of Indianapolis, as director, 
with Miss Lucy Elliott, of Tipton, as assistant. 

Provision for state-wide correlation of the work was 
made through the appointment of ninety-two county 
chairmen, as a grand commission of the whole, and in 
August, 1915, Thomas James de la Hunt (II) was ap- 
pointed Perry County chairman. A county organiza- 



HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 353 

tion reaching every town and township was immedi- 
ately planned and effected, so that on Thursday, Sep- 
tember 9, Dr. Lindley, who addressed a public meeting 
at the court house in Cannelton, was also able to hold 
a personal conference with practically the entire mem- 
bership of the Perry County Centennial Committee. 

This body was made up (in addition to the chairman) 
of : Cannelton, Mrs. Lee Rodman (Margherita Welling) , 
President Woman's Travel Club; Mayor Thomas J. 
Truempy; County School Superintendent Lee Mullen; 
William Preston Minor; the Rev. James Shea, pastor 
St. Michael's Church; Louis J. Early. Tell City, Mrs. 
William Krogman (Claudine Voelke), President Home 
Economics Club; Mrs. Frederick G. Heinzle (Elizabeth 
Gautchie), President Woman's Reading Club; Mayor 
Frederick G. Heinzle; Emil Mangel, High School Prin- 
cipal. Troy, Miss Josephine Nicolay. Tobinsport, Mrs. 
James H. Payne (Addie Polk Miller), Secretary Home 
Economics Club. Rome, Miss Lelia Lucetta Johnson, 
High School Principal. Anderson Township, Mrs. 
Howard M. Royal (Mary H. Batson) . Clark Township, 
Miss Mary Lomax. Oil Township, Miss Emma Holmes, 
High School Principal. Union Township, Miss Mary 
Burke, High School Principal. Leopold Township, 
Oscar M. Wilbur, Tobin Township, Frank Sanders. 
Troy Township, Arthur G. Zimmerman. 

Each one of these fully realized the lofty purpose of 
the great movement to do honour to the founders of 
our Commonwealth; to reveal the history of Indiana 
to the people of Indiana ; and the people to themselves, 
by stopping to consider what had been done in a hun- 
dred years. 

The work called — undeniably — for personal sacrifice 
of time and energy, yet merely considering Indiana's 
honour roll of character in every line of achievement 
could not fail to awaken in the most listless a patriot- 
ism meaning state-wide, nation-wide and international 
interest ; a patriotism meaning unstinted, honest public 
and social service ; a patriotism engaging the individual 



354 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY 

exertion of every Hoosier in the upbuilding of the 
State, and showing what it means to live for one's 
country and to make it a country worth dying for. 

The Beautiful River still flows toward the distant sea 
along its westward course which for an eventful cen- 
tury has marked the southern boundary of a proud and 
noble commonwealth — Indiana; rushing tumultuously 
over those rapids known as the Falls of the Ohio, but 
gliding smoothly past the half -hundred winding miles 
of Perry County's coast-line. Men may come and men 
may go : — still it listens to the story of To-day which 
shall sometime be the history of Yesterday. 

Finis 



INDEX 



Abell, Ignatius, S, 38. 
Academy, Rome, 276; St. Al- 

ban's, 278. 
Ackarman Family, 84, 2M. 
Admission of Indiana, 35. 
Adye Family, 273. 
Adyeville, 272. 
Alvey, Tbomas G., 48. 
Anderson Township, 18. 
Arclier Family, 180, 253, 254, 

290. 
Archibald, John, 21. 
Armstrong family, 163, 213, 257. 
Arnold, Bridget, 17. 
Asylum, County, 334. 
Athens Township, 107-8. 
Avery Family, 16. 
Avitt, Richard, 18, 45. 

Bacon Family, 170, 331. 
Banks and Banking, 167, 297. 
Barber, Grace, 27; Levi, 6. 
Barker, William, 8. 
Barnett, Rev. O. A., 92. 
Bates Family, 31, 113. 
Batson Family, 224, 285. 
Battell, Charles I., 39, 75, 79. 
Baumgaertner, John, 200. 
Beacon Family, 150, 162-4, 248, 

253. 
Bear Stories. 21, 25. 
Becker Family, 198, 347. 
"Belle Key," Steamer, 173. 
Bemiss Family, 318, 337. 
Benton, Stephen, 6. 
Bessouies, Rev. A., 26, 104. 
Bettinger Family, 198, 300, 345. 
Blackford, Isaac, 29, 
Blue River, 22, 241. 
Bolin, Thomas, 51. 
Bollinger, Jacob, 200. 
Book, Rev. J. W., 323. 
Boon, Ratliff, 28. 
Bott Family, 197, 294, 319. 
Bowie, John, 9. 
Boyd. James, 91. 
Branchville, 272. 



Brazee Family, 153, 156, 161, 

187, 302. 
Breeden, Bryant, 241. 
Bridgeport, 272. 
Bristow, 274. 
Brucker, Dr. M., 113, 120, 171, 

216, 220. 
Buckingham, E., 6. 
Brute, Bishop, 104. 
Buckner, Gen. S. B., 222. 
"Buffalo Trace," 12. 
Bull Run School, 82. 
Burke Family, 218, 289, 293, 

302, 353. 
Burkett, James A., 214, 217, 

336, 317. 
Burton, Samuel, 81. 
Bush, Stella H., 335. 
"Buzzard's Roost," 115. 

Cannelsburg, 90. 

Cannelton, 91 ; Incorporation of, 

166. 
Carlile Family, 89. 
Carr Family, 210, 255, 294, 342, 

344. 
Casper Family, 110, 338, 344. 
Cassldy, John, 19, 81. 
Cavender Family, 14, 64, 74, 87, 

89. 
Cemetery, Cliff, 168. 
Chatard, Bishop, 108. 
Christin, J. C, 185. 
Churches — 

A. M. E., 169. 

Baptist, 57, 117, 147, 273. 

Disciples, 117. 

Episcopal, 143, 270. 

Evangelical, 147, 269. 

German M. E., 84, 148. 

Methodist, 56, 149. 

Presbyterian, 83, 201. 

Roman Catholic, 110-11, 268- 
269-70-1. 

Unitarian, 145. 

United Brethren, 117. 

Universalist, 82, 117. 



356 



INDE^X 



City Charters and Officers, 313. 
City Hall. Canuelton, 334; Tell 

City, 333. 
Clark Brothers, 1st, 259, 345; 

2d. 2()(>, 345. 
Clark Family, 88, 259. 
Clark, Dr. H. S., 170, 208, 223. 
Clark Township, 20. 
Clemens Family, 112, 343, 344, 

345. 
Clubs, Woman's, 341. 
Coal Haven, 86. 
Coal Mines, Early, 75, 88. 
Cockrell, Martin, 18. 
Connor Family, 42, 51, 54, 56, 

59, 91. 
Constitutional Elm, 36. 
Cook, Ziba H., 137. 
Cotton, Dr. R. G., 34, 100, 113. 
Cotton Mills, 131-2. 
Courcier Family, 26, 52, 288. 
County Seat, Location, 10; Re- 
moval, 37 ; Re-location, 156. 
Court House, 1st, 32; 2d, 53; 

3d, 162 ; 4th, 333. 
Crist, John, 39. 
Crocker, Annis, 32. 
Cummings Family, 14, 80, 224, 

347, 351. 
Cunningham Family, 27, 52, 76, 

117, 305. 
Curry Family, 116. 
Cutler, Edward B., 220. 

I 
I 

Davidson, Wm., 252. 

Deen Family, 24, 30, 83, 118, 

272, 286. 
Deer Creek Township, 10, 26. 
Derby, 81, 82. 

De Weese, G. P., 161, 217, 221. 
Dorsey Family, 34. 
Drinkwater Family, 17, 51. 
Drumb Family, 109, 285, 291. 
Duel in County, 75. 
Dunn, John P., 100, 218. 

Early, L. J., 332, 353. 
"Eclipse," Steamer, 177. 
Embree, Elisha, 79. 
Emmerson, Wm., 8. 
English Family, 102, 109. 
Esarey Family, 22, 83, 118, 215, 

240, 271, 329, 331, 289, 347. 
Evans, F. Anson, 197. 
Ewing Family, 17, 23, 44, 55, 83. 
Ewing Guards, 326. 



Fairs, County, 294. 
Faulkenborough Family, 25, 30, 

83. 
Ferries, Pioneer, 78, 305. 
Feuu Family, 262, 313, 322, 339, 

346. 
Finch, Abr., 18. 
Flint Island Lyceum, 118. 
"Floating Palace," 182. 
Floyd, Davis, 29. 
Foumier, Col. Charles, 215, 240, 

251. 
Frakes Family, 23, 27, 77, 272, 

286. 
Frank, Martin, 178. 
"Franklin Institute," 151. 
Franklin, Townsite of, 39. 
Fraternal Orders, 118, 119-20, 

272. 317, 341, 343, 351. 
Frey, Louis, 193, 216. 
Frisbie Family, 43, 76, 98, 100. 
Fulton Family, 12. 
Fulton, Hamlet of, 307. 
Fulton Monument Assoc, 308. 

Gardner, Robt., 56, S. J., 85. 

Gentry Family, 72. 

George Family, 110, 289. 

German Ridge, 84. 

Gilead Church, 54. 

Githens, Rev. W. L., 150, 209, 

226. 
Goodlett, J. R. E., 42. 
Groves Family, 18, 30, 48, 57, 

121, 164, 252, 286. 

de la Hailandiere, Bishop, 105. 
Hall, Capt. W., 62; Rev. A. K., 

270; Saml., 41, 79. 
Hardin Family, 57, 159, 278, 

295. 
Hargis Family, 27, 81, 224, 351. 
Harley, David, 50. 
Harrer, John C, 194. 
Hatfield Family, 115, 207, 252, 

257, 291. 
Hawesville, Mining at, 85; 

Bombardment of, 245. 
Hay Family, 119, 130, 149. 
Hennen, Mrs. Alfred, 137, 141. 
Henning Family, 321, 326. 
Herrmann Familv, 190-1. 320, 

342, 344. 
Herzeele, Baron B., 306. 
High Schools, 336. 
Highways, Pioneer, 77, 303. 
Hiley, Abr., 18, 30, 48. 



INDEX 



357 



Hines' Raid, 239. 
Hobart, James T., 85. 
Houie-Coming, Tell City, 345. 
Home Guards, 215. 
Hoslilnsou Family, 14, 74. 
Hovey, Alviu P., 123, 315. 
Huokeby Family, 55, 67, 101, 

120, 149, 187, 207. 
Huff Family, 33, 43. 
Hunt, Gen. Seth, 85, 87. 
de la Hunt Family, 47, 124, 154. 

217, 222, 252, 329, 353. 
Huntington Family, 126-7-8-9, 

187. 
Hurricane Township, 26. 
Huston Family, 292, 317. 
Huthsteiner Family, 200, 297, 

339. 

Indians, Departure of, 6. 
Infantry, Cannelton, 326; Tell 

City, 351. 
Institutes, Farmers', 295, 342; 

Teachers', 285. 

James Family, 146, 187. 
James, Gen. C. T., 132, 134. 
Jennings, James R., 214. 

"Kate May," Burning of, 176. 
Keel-boats, Early, 9. 
Kellys, Trial of, 124. 
Kemmerling Family, 266. 
Key Family, 162, 228, 233. 
King, Samuel, 258. 
Kidnapping of Negroes, 121. 
Kreisle Family, 263, 321. 
Krogman Family, 263, 353. 
Kundek, Rev. J., 103. 
Kyler, W. H., 251. 

Lafayette, Gen., 61. 

Lamar Township, 10. 

Lamb Family, 18, 49, 96, 99. 

Lander Family, 85, 249. 

Lang Family, 47, 57, 285. 

Lasher Family, 20. 

Launching "Pauline Carroll," 

258 
Lees Family, 149, 165, 215, 302. 
Leopold, Founding of, 105. 
Leopold Township, 10, 26. 
Lincoln Family, 68. 
Lomax Family, 275, 353. 
Loncuemare Family, 277, 29i, 

335. 
Ludwig Family, 201, 216, 262. 



Maclure, Wm, 327. 
McDaniel Family, 9, 28. 
McGregor, Alex., 134-5, 306. 
McKim Family, 20, 273. 
McKiuley Family, 32, 164. 
McNaughton, Findlay, 241. 
Magnet, 115. 

Mallory Family, 46, 54, 57. 
Marcilliat Family, 52, 110. 
Marendt, Rev. M., 112, 209, 268. 
Martin Family, 115, 285. 
Mason Family, C. H., 122, 207, 

221, 253. 
Mason Family, John, 74, 88, 

306. 
May Family, 261, 300, 302, 321, 

322. 
May, Heber J., 287. 
Maynard, J. B., 207, 218, 228, 

290. 
Menninger Family, 265, 294, 

341. 
Meunier Family, 225. 
Meyer. John J., 194 ; Peter, 260, 

297. 
Miller. Alex., 15; Chas. T., 147, 

292. 
Minor Family, 118, 279, 343, 

347, 353. 
Mitchell Family, 26, 81, 337. 
Moraweck Family, 195, 313, 

321. 
Morgan, Capt. E., 246. 
Morgan's Raid, 237, 242. 
Mound Builders, 1. 
Mozart Hall, 119, 162, 207, 229, 

326. 
Mullen, Lee, 289, 353. 
Murray, Col. D. R., 210, 217, 

315. 
Murtha, H. T., 218. 
Muskets, Hiding of, 213. 

National Road, 303. 
Newcomb Family, 136, 138, 219. 
New Orleans Packet Line, 177. 
''New Orleans," Steamer, 12. 
Newspapers. 122, 134, 196, 238, 

289, 330, 347. 
Nicolay Family, 110, 353. 

Odell Family, 45, 283. 

Ohio River, Floods in, 349; 

Name of, 7. 
Oil Township, 22. 
Ostreicher, Albert, 196, 200. 



358 



INDEX 



Paddox, Jos., 8. 

Patrick Family, 266, 287, 317, 

341, 344. 
Patterson Family, 164, 195, 286. 
Payne, Mrs. J. H., 60, 342, 353. 
Pfafflin, Aug., 188, 215. 
Plank Road, 306. 
Piatt Family, 149, 165, 320. 
Polk Family, 14, 27, 51, 60. 
Polk, Greenville, 15, 59. 
Posey Family, 27, 31, 69. 
Protzman Family, 32, 33, 171. 
Public Library, 327, 334. 

Railroads, 310. 
Rau, Philip, Sr., 148. 
Reagan Family, 46. 
Rector Family, 6, 11, 91. 
Reif, Cbas. W., 194, 199. 
Reily Family, 24-5, 50, 77, 83, 

272. 
"Reindeer," Explosion of, 175, 
Revolutionary Soldiers, 42. 
Reynolds Family, 278. 
Rhodes, Thomas, 50. 
Rice, Dan., 181. 
Ricks, John W., 54. 
Rodman Family. 137, 343, 353. 
Rome, 40, 79; Incorp. of, 79. 
Rono, 115. 

Roosevelt, N. J., 12, 126, 307. 
Rosecrans, Benj., 50. 
Royal Family, 278, 285, 353. 
Ryan Family, 16, 342. 

Sandage Family, 19. 
Schmuck Family, 228, 260, 298. 
Schools, Township, 94. 
Schreiber Family, 265, 313, 321, 

323, 341. 
Schuster Family, 151, 153-4, 

161, 195. 
Scull Family, 187, 329. 
Seminary, County, 38, 96. 
Shallcross Family, 337, 345. 
Shaver Family, 23, 50. 
Shipyard, Cannelton, 258. 
Shoemaker Family, 56, 280, 339. 
Shoemaker Farm, 282. 
Shoemaker. John G., 287, 296. 
Siberia, 271. 
Simons Family, 16, 17. 
Smith, Ballard, 162, 187. 
Smith, Bishop, 149. 
Smith, Hamilton, Family of, 

140-4. 



Smith Township, 10, 26. 

de St. Palais. Bishop, 108, 324. 

Stalder, Herman, 194. 

Steinauer Family, 185, 190, 193. 

Steiner, Fred, 195. 

Sterett Family, 85, 214, 332. 

Stewart, James, 8. 

St. Louis Addition, 93. 

"Sunnycrest Farm," 45, 283. 

Surveys, First, 6. 

Swiss Col. Society, 185. 

I 

Talbott, Bishop, 270. 

"Tarascon," Steamer 227. 

Tassin, Aug., 219. 

Taxes, Early, 27, 78. 

Taylor Family, 31, 32, 50, 72, 
131, 252. 

Tell City, Founding of, 188 ; In- 
corp. of, 199. 

Terry Family, 19. 

Thrasher Family, 14, 187. 

Thompson Family, 79, 159, 161. 

Tlnsley Family, 336. 

Tobin Family, 14, 17, 56, 64. 

Tobin Township, 14. 

Training Day, 57. 

Treaties With Indians, 5, 6. 

Troy, Founding of, 9; Incorp. 
of, 113. 

Tiuempy Family, 317, 321, 329, 
353. 

Underwood, W. N., 291, 299. 
Upfold, Bishop, 150. 

I 
Van Winkle Family, 20, 116, 274. 
Vaughan Family, 13, 217, 226, 

286. 
Voelke Family, 264, 351. 

( 
Wade Family, 223, 227, 336. 
Wales Family, 149, 151, 217, 

286, 291. 
Walker Family, 23, 83. 
Ward, Sallie, 131, 142. 
War of 1812, Soldiers in, 51. 
Washington, Townsite of, 39. 
Waterbury, 81. 
Weatherholt Family, 15, 30, 48, 

77. 
Wentworth Family, 74, 88, 93. 
Wheeler Family, 77, 274, 285, 

295. 
Whitmarsh Family, 286, 335, 

338. 



INDEX 359 

Whittaker, Jos., 221, 313. York, Jere., 48. 

Wilber Family, 14, 137, 139, 

216 227. Ziuimermau Family, 317, 656. 

winciiel Family, 16, 99. Zoerclier Family, 262, 332, 341, 

Wright, Jos., 9, 13. 346, 347. 



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